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Second Wave of Suits Brought in Campaign Focused on Software Development Kits
New Patent Litigation
Lucio Development LLC has filed a second wave in the litigation campaign over a single embedded software patent, begun with a first wave in December 2017. The new defendants, like the earlier ones, have been sued across Texas: Cadence Design Systems (6:19-cv-00033), Qorvo (6:19-cv-00034), and Semtech (6:19-cv-00035) in the Eastern District; Maxim (3:19-cv-00255), Microchip Technology (3:19-cv-00256), and TI (3:19-cv-00257) in the Northern District; and Mellanox Technologies (1:19-cv-00076) and Silicon Laboratories (1:19-cv-00077) in the Western District. The NPE plaintiff has targeted the defendants’ software development kits throughout the campaign.
January 31, 2019
IPVal's PC Coma Files Second Campaign, This One Targeting Laptop Temperature Regulation
New Patent Litigation
PC Coma LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has kicked off a second litigation campaign, filing separate suits against Fujitsu (2:19-cv-00033) and Panasonic (2:19-cv-00034) in the Eastern District of Texas. A single patent, generally related to temperature control in a portable computer, is asserted, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of laptops (e.g., the Fujitsu Lifebook P727 and Panasonic Toughbook CF-C1, respectively) incorporating certain temperature management systems. In early January, the remaining open case in PC Coma’s first litigation campaign, filed over a power management patent and targeting multifunction printers, was dismissed with prejudice.
January 31, 2019
Acacia Sub Sues Amazon, Alleging That a Wide Range of Devices Using the AMR-WB Audio Codec Are Not Covered by a Prior Settlement and License
New Patent Litigation
Saint Lawrence Communications LLC has filed suit against Amazon (2:19-cv-00027), asserting a familiar set of five data compression patents in a new complaint that targets a long list of devices supporting the Adaptive Multi-Rate-Wideband (AMR-WB) audio codec for speech. The accused products include the Fire Phone, various Fire TV products, various Kindle Android tablets, and various Echo and Alexa products (including those running Amazon’s Android-based Fire OS). Saint Lawrence, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, pleads ownership of the patents asserted; last August, EVS Codec Technologies, LLC—claiming the exclusive right to grant licenses covering products practicing the Enhanced Voice Standard (EVS) for voice services over LTE/4G networks—asserted the same five patents in suits filed against Huawei, LG Electronics (LGE), and ZTE. The Saint Lawrence Communications complaint acknowledges a “prior settlement and license agreement” with Amazon but further alleges that “Amazon is not currently licensed to the patents asserted in this Complaint with respect to the activities accused of infringement”.
January 28, 2019
LED Campaign Asserting Former Honeywell Patents Expands in Early 2019
New Patent Litigation
Technical LED Intellectual Property, LLC (Technical LED IP), an apparent affiliate of inventor Fred DuFresne and/or his monetization firms Cerinet USA Inc. and ipCapital Licensing Company I, LLC (d/b/a Cerinet IP Licensing), has added seven cases so far in 2019 to the campaign that it began in August 2017. The new defendants are Aduro Technologies (2:19-cv-00480), BVGA Mipow (3:19-cv-00393), Culver LED Lighting Solutions (8:19-cv-00120), Feit Electric (2:19-cv-00485), Home Controls (3:19-cv-00144), Lifi Labs (5:19-cv-00392), and NORA Lighting (2:19-cv-00488), each accused of infringing a single LED lighting patent acquired from Honeywell. Technical LED IP has now filed almost 20 cases in this campaign, across various districts, all of these most recent cases in California district courts. Its disclosures there identify both Cerinet USA and Honeywell as nonparties having an interest in the outcome of the litigation.
January 27, 2019
Data Scape Files Against Box, Re-Files Against Dropbox
New Patent Litigation
Data Scape Limited continues to add cases to the litigation campaign begun in late 2017 in Germany. This past week the NPE, formed in Ireland, sued Box (6:19-cv-00025) and Dropbox (6:19-cv-00023) in the Western District of Texas, asserting against each the same four patents broadly related to storing and syncing data files in a distributed computing environment. Data Scape received the patents through a March 2017 assignment from Sony in a transaction involving over 20 issued US patents, together with various foreign assets. Data Scape targets products and services of the defendants that sync documents and data (e.g., music files) across servers and client devices, calling out in these complaints various Box services (Platform, for Business, for Individuals & Teams, Sync, Drive), as well as Dropbox Business. Both suits are filed in the Waco division of Western District of Texas; Data Scape has filed a notice of dismissal without prejudice of the case filed earlier in January against Dropbox in the Austin division.
January 27, 2019
Rembrandt NPE Brings Second Case Targeting Bluetooth-Enabled Devices
New Patent Litigation
Rembrandt Wireless Technologies, LP (Rembrandt WT) has filed suit against Apple (2:19-cv-00025), accusing the company of infringing the same two wireless communications patents first asserted against Samsung in 2013. That earlier case ended this past August in a dismissal with prejudice after the parties notified the Eastern District of Texas of their settlement—following a jury verdict in Rembrandt WT’s favor, a Federal Circuit appeal of the resulting judgment, and multiple inter partes reviews (IPRs) of the two patents. As in the Samsung case, Rembrandt WT targets products implementing versions of the Bluetooth protocol that support Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), including “Version 2.0 + EDR, Version 2.1 + EDR, Version 3.0 + HS, Version 4.0 + LE, Version 4.1, Version 4.2, or version 5”, this new complaint listing Apple products allegedly offering Bluetooth EDR support, including certain iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, iPod Nanos, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, Airport Extremes, AirPods, HomePods, and Beats wireless headphones and speakers.
January 26, 2019
IV Closed 2018 with More Divestitures to NPEs
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) finished Q4 with at least two more divestitures to NPEs, according to recently released USPTO records. The assignments, which involved two relatively new players in the patent marketplace, included assets originating with Cypress Semiconductor, Duke University, Enhanced Memory Systems, Integrated Device Technology (IDT), or SK Hynix, among others.
January 25, 2019
Supreme Court Affirms Rule Applying On-Sale Bar to “Secret Sales”
Biotech and Pharma, Patent Litigation Feature
The US Supreme Court has held that an inventor’s sale of an invention to a third party obligated to keep the invention confidential (i.e., a “secret sale”) can qualify as prior art under 35 USC Section 102(a). Helsinn Healthcare sought reversal of a Federal Circuit opinion to that effect, arguing that under the amended version of that section within the America Invents Act (AIA), an inventor’s confidential disclosure to a third party does not trigger the on-sale bar. The US Supreme Court agreed with the Federal Circuit, noting both that the amended statute included the same language, amply construed in prior case law, as the prior version and that “[t]he addition of ‘or otherwise available to the public’ is simply not enough of a change for us to conclude that congress intended to alter the meaning of the reenacted ‘on sale’”.
January 25, 2019
Court Denies Motion to Compel Litigation Finance Discovery in Long and Winding Flash Memory Suit
Patent Litigation Feature
As part of a clean up after the December 2018 close of fact discovery, District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California has denied a motion to compel discovery related to the financing of an NPE plaintiff’s litigation as irrelevant under the circumstances of the case. Micron tethered relevance of the information sought to a need to “uncover possible bias issues” with witnesses testifying on behalf of plaintiff MLC Intellectual Property, LLC (MLC IP) and with any potential jurors in the upcoming trial, currently scheduled for August 2019. The court disagreed, noting that MLC IP had complied with the disclosure requirements of the local rules, identifying its principals as the only nonparties having a financial interest in the suit’s outcome, and had confirmed that nonparty witnesses are not funding the litigation. The court also pointed to its ability to question jurors about potential bias issues in camera if necessary. As this long and winding litigation heads into its expert discovery period, the court has yet to resolve all of the parties’ disputes over their pleadings.
January 20, 2019
December 2018 RPX Acquisitions Update
Patent Market, Patent Watch
RPX completed a number of acquisitions in December 2018 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Consumer Electronics and PCs; E-Commerce and Software.
January 18, 2019