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We're Back, Says Acacia
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Last August, Acacia Research Corporation—which had not launched any new US litigation campaigns since mid-2015—underwent a sweeping leadership change. Since then, it has revived a number of its litigation campaigns, and it has also begun rebuilding its IP licensing team, said director Alfred J. Tobia Jr. in a recent earnings call covering Q4 2018 results. According to Acacia, that team is expected to “research and process” $20M of new IP capital expenditure in 2019.
March 15, 2019
An Unfazed Fortress Hits Microsoft Twice More
New Patent Litigation
Uniloc 2017 LLC, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group LLC, has continued to file new cases, even as suits brought by Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, the prior owner of the asserted patents, work their way through a standing fight arising out of a complicated set of agreements between Uniloc and Fortress. Uniloc 2017 has hit a familiar target, Microsoft, twice in March already (8.19-cv-00428, 8.19-cv-00477). The first of those cases focus on Microsoft’s provision of the LTE-enabled model of its Surface Pro tablet, which the complaint alleges includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem that supports HSUPA/HSUPA+ cellular connectivity; the second, its provision of Microsoft PlayReady, with associated servers allegedly deploying license policies based on factors such as geography and time (e.g., establishing allowed dates and expiry periods following a media item’s first playback).
March 15, 2019
Judge Alsup Upholds Noninfringement Verdict for Juniper from Finjan “Shootout” Trial
Patent Litigation Feature
District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California has denied a post-trial motion by Finjan, Inc., rejecting its attempt to overturn a December noninfringement verdict for Juniper Networks and denying its request for a new trial (3:17-cv-05659). In that verdict, the jury found that Juniper had not infringed a single claim from a Finjan anti-malware patent after struggling with the application of a key claim term; in a March 11 order, Judge Alsup held that the jury had not erred by reaching that verdict. The denial of Finjan’s post-trial motions is just the latest of multiple setbacks for the NPE in this lawsuit, following significant difficulties with its damages case—including Judge Alsup’s holding that Finjan had overinflated its asserted royalty base and his decision to exclude the entire testimony of its damages expert. The single-claim December trial stemmed from the case’s first “patent shootout”, an unorthodox procedure designed by Judge Alsup to more efficiently get to the merits of a patent case by forcing the parties to litigate their best arguments first.
March 15, 2019
New Empire IP Affiliate Launches Matchmaking Campaign
New Patent Litigation
A new affiliate of Empire IP LLC has filed its first litigation, suing IAC/InterActivecorp (Humor Rainbow) (1:19-cv-02318) in the Southern District of New York. Ghaly Devices LLC has accused Humor Rainbow of infringement through the provision of the OKCupid online dating service and mobile app. At issue are features that allow the user to select dating preferences by specifying personality traits derived from a personal profile system. The sole patent-in-suit is generally directed to a matchmaking interface allowing the user to select personality traits in that fashion.
March 14, 2019
Latest Parity Networks Complaints Split Patents by Pending PTAB Proceedings
New Patent Litigation
Parity Networks LLC has added two Western District of Texas suits against Cisco (6:19-cv-00207, 6:19-cv-00209) to its network traffic management campaign. In the first case, the NPE asserts three patents for the first time, together with the only patent familiar to the litigation yet to be challenged before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). All four patents at issue in the second case have been previously asserted and challenged in a petition for inter partes review (IPR). Cisco’s accused products include various network hardware operating systems (Cisco IOS, Cisco IOS XR, Cisco IOS XE, and Cisco NX-OS) offering various network traffic management features as well as switches and/or routers running that software.
March 14, 2019
From Fearsome to Fortress: The Long Fall of Uniloc
Top Insight
Amid ongoing standing battles with Apple and Lenovo (Motorola), Uniloc Corporation Pty Ltd. continues to fight efforts to unshroud details of its tangled agreements with Fortress Investment Group LLC. Yet, a close examination of documents already in the public domain, including filings in multiple state court cases brought in the aftermath of Uniloc’s 2012 settlement with Microsoft, yields a new understanding of the Uniloc-Fortress relationship. They also reveal a corporate life cycle fraught with funding turmoil, standing woes, and contentious disputes among parties eager to collect their share of Uniloc’s settlement revenues. Here, a look at the 15 years of chaos that led to Fortress’s recent takeover of Uniloc.
March 10, 2019
Standing Debate Continues as Fortress-Uniloc Deal Casts a Long Shadow over Lawsuits Against Apple
Patent Litigation Feature
In October 2018, a battle over standing erupted in litigation between Apple and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited (Uniloc). Apple had moved to dismiss four of Uniloc’s cases against it after learning of a complex set of agreements between the NPE and Fortress Investment Group LLC, arguing that Uniloc’s purported “defaults” under those agreements had deprived Uniloc of standing by shifting sufficient rights in the asserted patents to Fortress. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California denied that motion in January, holding in part that Fortress had shown through its conduct that Uniloc had cured any defaults that had occurred. Apple has now moved for reconsideration of that order, asserting that at least one of Uniloc’s defaults could not have been excused under the evidence presented and that the purported “cure” was really an implied waiver, which would be barred under the relevant agreements—under which any waiver by Fortress must be in writing. Uniloc, meanwhile, has asked the court to roll back certain redactions in Apple’s motion, arguing that only a narrower set of contractual terms between the NPE and Fortress needed to be withheld.
March 8, 2019
As Predicted, with a Twist, Endpoint IP Launches Its First Litigation Campaign of 2019
New Patent Litigation
A couple of weeks ago, RPX reported the assignment of a tranche of patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) to Aido LLC, an entity managed by Texas monetization firm Endpoint IP LLC. This past week a sister affiliate of Aido, Aido Mobility LLC, indeed filed suit, accusing Bank of America (1:19-cv-00465) of infringing four patents from a family generally related to delivering particularized (e.g., location-based) web content, through the provision of its mobile banking app. At issue is the app’s BankAmeriDeals feature, which sends push notifications that identify deals available for a place where the user just shopped, among other types of deal notifications offered. The patents-in-suit, although held by IV until recently, were not among those noted a couple of weeks ago and did not land directly in Aido Mobility’s hands.
March 7, 2019
New Plaintiff, Newly Issued Patent in a Familiar Family, New Focus on Retailers’ E-Commerce Websites
New Patent Litigation
Browse3D, LLC, a Texas entity created in February, has filed suit over the member to issue most recently in a family familiar to litigation. The NPE has sued retailers Dick’s Sporting Goods (6:19-cv-00186) and Nordstrom (6:19-cv-00188) over their e-commerce websites’ presentation of customized information (e.g., items recommended for purchase) based on tracking links that a user previously clicked on. In prior litigation, a different plaintiff—Flash3D LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal)—accused Facebook, Microsoft, and Samsung of infringing earlier-issuing members of the same family, the former through the presentation on www.facebook.com of multiple “panels” on a single browser page and the latter two through the provision of virtual reality headsets.
March 6, 2019
In Smartphone Camera Campaign, PTAB Setbacks Prompt Apparent Belt-and-Suspenders District Court Case
New Patent Litigation
Just over a year ago, inventor-backed Lemaire Illumination Technologies LLC added an Eastern District of Texas case against HTC to its sole litigation campaign, targeting color-adjusted camera flash systems within the defendants’ smartphones with three patents broadly related to controlling and powering a solid-state light source such as a light-emitting diode (LED). That complaint highlighted one claim from each of the three patents. HTC countered, in part, with petitions for inter partes review (IPR) of the patents asserted, challenging those three highlighted claims, as well as others. The district court proceeded into claim construction, with Lemaire Illumination briefing disputes over terms from each patent, when the NPE, shortly thereafter, disclaimed before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) the highlighted claims for two of the patents. HTC has quickly moved in Texas for partial summary judgment as to those two patents, while Lemaire Illumination has filed an apparent belt-and-suspenders complaint (2:19-cv-00317)—naming HTC America, instead of its parent HTC Corporation, in a new forum. That second complaint asserts the same three patents against the same products but highlights different claims from those two patents in some trouble before the PTAB.
March 5, 2019