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January 2019 RPX Acquisitions Update
Patent Market, Patent Watch
RPX completed a number of acquisitions in January 2019 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Mobile Communications and Devices; E-Commerce and Software; Networking; and Semiconductors.
February 10, 2019
Apple Files DJ Against NPE Asserting Former BlackBerry Patents in USB Charging Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Apple has brought a declaratory judgment (DJ) action against Fundamental Innovation Systems International LLC, an NPE with active campaigns in the US and Europe, and its corporate parent, Fundamental Innovation Systems International Holdings LLC (collectively, “FISI”). Apple’s DJ complaint (3:19-cv-00638), filed on February 5 in the Northern District of California, seeks a judgment of noninfringement for three categories of products that include certain adapters, mobile devices, and wearables. The 12 patents-in-suit originated with BlackBerry and include a group of USB charging patents that FISI has asserted in a campaign hitting Huawei, LG Electronics (LGE), Samsung, and ZTE. They were among the roughly 200 patent assets that BlackBerry assigned to FISI in a late 2015 transaction—a multi-million dollar deal, according to public records, that was embroiled in strife and gamesmanship.
February 9, 2019
Cox and Verizon Added as Defendants in IPVal’s Contemporary Display Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Contemporary Display LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has added cases filed against Cox Communications (1:19-cv-00224) and Verizon (1:19-cv-00225) to the litigation campaign that it began last April. The NPE asserts two patents familiar to the campaign while debuting two in litigation for the first time, all of them acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in an August 2017 transfer of five families of disparate origins. Cox is alleged to infringe through the provision of certain DVRs (while an apparently misfiled document on PACER has made the exact allegations against Verizon unclear); the patents generally relate to an adapter for a video monitor, an on-screen system for managing the inputs to a television, and a device switching between “sessions”.
February 9, 2019
F5 Networks Sued over Server Performance Patent Challenged Under Alice by Barracuda Networks
New Patent Litigation
Accelerated Memory Tech, LLC, an entity affiliated with Atlanta-based monetization firm IP Investments Group, LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group), has filed a third case in its sole campaign litigating a single patent generally related to improving server performance. The latest defendant is F5 Networks (2:19-cv-00183); the new case, filed in the Western District of Washington, joins a Northern District of Georgia suit against Barracuda Networks still active after an apparent settlement in a prior case brought against Citrix (the first suit filed in this campaign, in April 2018). F5 Networks is accused of infringement through the provision of its BIG-IP Platform, which allegedly “includes services such as WebAccelerator that perform functions such as handling HTTP requests, dynamic caching, and load balancing”. Meanwhile, last month, Accelerated Memory filed its opposition to a Barracuda Networks motion challenging the patent-in-suit as invalid under Alice.
February 8, 2019
Mimzi Targets Google and Microsoft Functionality in New Complaints Against Mobile Device Makers
New Patent Litigation
Inventor-controlled Mimzi, LLC has expanded its sole litigation campaign, begun last November, by adding suits that target the voice response functionality provided by either Alphabet (Google) or Microsoft in mobile devices made and/or sold by Acer (1:19-cv-00272), ASUSTek (1:19-cv-00273), or HTC (1:19-cv-00274). Each new case identifies such devices for that defendant, providing infringement allegations with respect to the inclusion of voice response technology from Google (Voice Action, Search by Voice, Google Voice Search, Google Now, Google Assistant) or Microsoft (Cortana). For example, in the Acer suit, Mimzi calls out the Liquid Zest smartphone and Iconia One 10 tablet for their inclusion of the former; the Liquid Jade Primo smartphone and the Switch 7 Black Edition and Aspire E 15 laptops, of the latter. These latest defendants join Foursquare Labs and Trip Advisor in the campaign, both accused of infringement over apps made for “use on mobile devices that use the Apple, Android, Microsoft or other operating systems”.
February 8, 2019
Full Federal Circuit Refuses to Revive Mandamus Review of Gilstrap Venue Ruling, as Dissent Highlights Resources “Needlessly Wasted” While Parties Await Answers
Patent Litigation Feature
The US Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland caused a dramatic realignment in patent venue through its holding that a corporation “resides” for venue purposes in its state of incorporation. However, while TC Heartland provided some much-needed clarity as to that first prong of the patent venue statute (28 USC Section 1400(b)), courts have split as to the statute’s second prong, which provides that venue is proper where a defendant “has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business”. One such ruling applying that prong, handed down last July by District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, has highlighted the tension in this area of venue law. In that order, issued in a case that Fortress Investment Group LLC affiliate Seven Networks LLC brought against Google, Judge Gilstrap denied the defendant’s venue challenge, holding that certain Google servers maintained within third-party facilities in the Eastern District of Texas constituted a “regular and established place of business”. On February 5, the full Federal Circuit declined to revisit that decision for a second time, following its October denial of Google’s petition for mandamus review—once again prompting a sharp rebuke from dissenting Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna (2018-0152).
February 8, 2019
Data Scape Sues Barracuda Networks in the Eastern District of California
New Patent Litigation
Data Scape Limited appears to be unrolling its sole litigation campaign, begun in late 2017 in Germany, by US district. This past week the NPE, formed in Ireland, sued Barracuda Networks (1:19-cv-00100) in the Eastern District of California, after prior waves of litigation hit defendants in the Central District of California (Apple, Citrix, Pandora, Spotify, and Western Digital); the Eastern District of Texas (Dell, Fujitsu, and SAP); the District of Colorado (Amazon, F5 Networks); and then the Western District of Texas (Box, Dropbox). Data Scape received the patents-in-campaign through a March 2017 assignment from Sony in a transaction involving over 20 issued US patents, together with various foreign assets. The NPE’s infringement allegations focus on products and services that sync documents and data (e.g., music files) across servers and client devices, targeting in its most recent complaint Barracuda’s provision of enterprise network backup products, including certain models of the “Barracuda Backup Physical Appliance…, Barracuda Backup Virtual Appliances, [and] Barracuda Cloud”.
February 8, 2019
A Newer PACT XPP Entity Sues Intel over Patents from Portfolio Previously at Issue Against Altera, Avnet, and Xilinx
New Patent Litigation
PACT XPP Schweiz AG has filed suit against Intel (1:19-cv-00267), asserting a dozen patents generally related to various aspects of multi-core chip operation. The complaint targets a range of Intel products, including Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors “with Sandy Bridge and above microarchitectures”, as well as any “other processors incorporating ring bus architecture”, Intel processors with Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, and others. The plaintiff is a Swiss entity, formed as “Scientia Sol Mentis AG” in July 2016, that changed to its current name roughly two years later. It received the patents-in-suit as part of a larger transaction of assets from PACT XPP Technologies AG, which asserted other patents from among those now held by PACT XPP Schweiz against Altera (subsequently acquired by Intel), Avnet, and Xilinx in a campaign running from December 2007 to mid-December 2015.
February 7, 2019
Self-Proclaimed “Inventor of the Connected Home” Kicks Off Smart Home Campaign Through Portus
New Patent Litigation
Inventor-controlled Portus Singapore Pte Ltd. and its Australian subsidiary Portus Pty Limited have initiated their first litigation campaign as patent owner and exclusive licensee, respectively, suing AT&T (AT&T Digital Life) (2:19-cv-00044) in the Eastern District of Texas, AXP Group (Vivint) (3:19-cv-00310) in the Northern District of Texas, and Zmodo Technology (2:19-cv-02029) in the Northern District of Illinois. A family of two patents generally related to monitoring and/or controlling devices at a remote location is asserted against each defendant, with infringement allegations focused on the provision of smart home automation and security products—i.e., the AT&T Digital product suite, the Vivint Smart Hub, and Zmodo’s Pivot and Pivot Cloud, both Internet-connected home security cameras offering remote access features and that serve as control hubs for other smart devices (e.g., lights).
February 7, 2019
New NPE with Curious Connections Files First Litigation over One of Eleven Patents Acquired from Eastman Kodak
New Patent Litigation
Recently formed Texas entity TBL Holdings, Inc. has filed its first lawsuit, accusing Signify (f/k/a Philips Lighting) (6:19-cv-00038) of infringing one of the 11 patents acquired last year from Eastman Kodak, this one generally related to coordinating two displays in an “image viewing system”. The defendant is accused of infringement through the provision of smart TVs and Philips Hue smart lighting products that offer colored bias lighting—that is, products that illuminate the area surrounding the TV with light that is color-matched to onscreen content. The circumstances surrounding the formation of TBL Holdings suggest possible connections to a well-known player in NPE litigation.
February 6, 2019