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As Litigation Against Samsung Winds Down, Red Rock Analytics Sues Apple
New Patent Litigation
Inventor-controlled Red Rock Analytics, LLC has filed a second suit in the litigation campaign begun in February 2017, suing Apple (2:19-cv-00117) in the Eastern District of Texas over the same patent. That patent broadly concerns transceivers with a system for calibrating I and Q signals, with infringement allegations in the new complaint focused on devices—various models of iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, Airport, Time Capsule, and Mac as well as the Homepod—compliant with the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard and with later versions of Wi-Fi (“e.g. 802.11ac, 802.11ad, and/or 802.11ax”), including “802.11n and later wireless transceivers made by Broadcom”. This new case follows as the prior suit, filed against Samsung in the same district, appears to be headed toward dismissal on the eve of trial.
April 15, 2019
Akoloutheo Rolls Quickly Through Cases in Early 2019
New Patent Litigation
Its third case of 2019 already headed toward dismissal, Akoloutheo, LLC has filed suit against ThoughtSpot (4:19-cv-00270) in the Eastern District of Texas. The NPE sued Mitel Networks and Palo Alto Networks in January, followed by Oracle in February. Dismissals with prejudice have been granted in the January cases, while a motion for such a dismissal has been filed in the suit against Oracle. Throughout the campaign, Akoloutheo has principally targeted network management platforms, here accusing ThoughtSpot of infringement through the provision of software and services related to business data analytics.
April 15, 2019
Fortress (as Seven Networks) Takes Aim at Apple in the Eastern District of Texas
New Patent Litigation
Following dismissals in cases against Alphabet (Google) and Samsung, Fortress Investment Group LLC affiliate Seven Networks LLC has added an Eastern District of Texas case against Apple (2:19-cv-00115) to the litigation campaign that it began in May 2017. Sixteen patents are asserted in the new complaint, each with original development work done by Seven Networks Inc. (f/k/a Leap Corporation), a mobile email company that converted to the current Fortress LLC in July 2015. A wide range of Apple products and services are targeted, in various overlapping groups across the allegations of infringement of the 16 patents-in-suit.
April 14, 2019
Federal Circuit Grants Retrial for CalAmp in Fleet Tracking Suit, Overturning $15M Judgment
Patent Litigation Feature
The Federal Circuit has reversed a $15M final judgment in an Omega Patents LLC suit against CalAmp, ordering a new trial for many of the issues addressed in a February 2016 willful infringement verdict (2018-1309). In a precedential opinion issued on April 8, the Federal Circuit affirmed the jury’s finding that the company had directly infringed a single claim from one patent but granted a new trial as to two other patents, also issuing a judgment of noninfringement for certain claims from one of those two patents. The appeals court also granted a retrial as to the infringement of two of the patents-in-suit by CalAmp’s customers. Additionally, the Federal Circuit ordered a new trial on inducement based on the prejudicial exclusion of testimony by a CalAmp executive and its outside counsel. The Federal Circuit further reversed and remanded as to the jury’s finding of willfulness and overturned the lower court’s enhanced damages award.
April 13, 2019
QPRC Also Sues Apple in the Eastern District of Texas
New Patent Litigation
Quest NetTech Corporation, a subsidiary of publicly traded Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC), has begun a new litigation campaign, suing Apple (2:19-cv-00118) over a single reissue patent broadly directed to a credit card system that stores “financial transaction records of a plurality of financial accounts”. The NPE alleges that Apple infringes the patent through the provision of the iPhone 6, running iOS 8, 9, and/or 10, as used for Apple Pay. Quest NetTech’s suit was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging proper venue in the district based on the presence of two Apple retail stores there—stores that Apple reportedly has plans to close.
April 13, 2019
March 2019 RPX Acquisitions Update
Patent Market, Patent Watch
RPX completed a number of acquisitions in March 2019 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Networking; Mobile Communications and Devices; E-Commerce and Software; Automotive; Financial Services; and Semiconductors.
April 12, 2019
Empire IP Campaign over Location-Based Services Tags Apple...in the Eastern District of Texas
New Patent Litigation
Apple (2:12-cv-00759) has joined over 100 other companies as a defendant in the largest of the over 45 litigation campaigns filed by affiliates of monetization firm Empire IP LLC. LBS Innovations, LLC has asserted a single patent—generally related to providing location-based information, including “entertainment, commercial offers, and advertising” to mobile devices—since March 2011, with the most recent dismissal, in a case brought against Best Buy, Car Toys, and Fry’s Electronics, entered in December 2018. LBS Innovations targets Apple Maps, as allegedly provided in smartphones (from the iPhone 4 on), tablets (certain iPads and iPod Touches), computers (certain iMacs and MacBooks), smartwatches (from Apple Watch Series 0), and in-dash navigational devices (CarPlay since June 2014), all allegedly through June 12, 2017, the date of expiration of the patent-in-suit.
April 12, 2019
USPTO Records Confirm Parts of a Large-Portfolio Acquisition by Dominion Harbor
Patent Market, Patent Watch
This past week, the USPTO made public new details about Panasonic’s March 2019 patent assignment to Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (SPV), an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC. Meanwhile, SPV has an ongoing campaign asserting a subset of patents received in a large-portfolio acquisition from Panasonic last year, which has so far hit Anker, Feit Electric, Lifi Labs, and SengLED.
April 12, 2019
DRM Products and Services at Issue in New Delaware Campaign
New Patent Litigation
DRM Vectors, LLC, an entity created in Delaware late last month, has initiated a new litigation campaign, suing Alphabet (Google) (1:19-cv-00653), Barnes & Noble (1:19-cv-00652), Lulu Enterprises (1:19-cv-00654), Microsoft (1:19-cv-00655), and Oracle (1:19-cv-00656) in that state. Each defendant is accused of infringing a single patent, generally related to a digital rights management (DRM) system that provides content from an “order server” and verifies content access privileges using an authentication server, through the provision of products and services offering DRM, calling out Google Play and Google Play Books, the Barnes & Noble eBook Platform, Lulu eBooks/eBook Platform, Microsoft’s PlayReady, and the Oracle Information Rights Management platform, respectively.
April 10, 2019
German Court Rejects Unwired Planet Portfolio-Splitting Strategy as “Flagrant” FRAND Violation, as Global SEP Landscape Continues to Evolve
Top Insight
A recent ruling in a Düsseldorf lawsuit filed by Unwired Planet International Limited may signal a dramatic shift in how Germany approaches fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing disputes. On April 5, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf issued an opinion after a February hearing in which it criticized Unwired Planet and other NPEs that acquire standard essential patents (SEPs) to seek higher licensing rates, asserting that such behavior is a “flagrant violation of the ban on discrimination under the FRAND rules”. That ruling, combined with a nascent legislative reform effort over injunctive relief, indicates that Germany may soon start to become less friendly toward patent plaintiffs overall. This is the second time in the past year that the Unwired Planet campaign has played a significant role in the development of European SEP jurisprudence, following the UK Court of Appeal’s ruling in Unwired Planet v. Huawei. Meanwhile, Chinese courts have only just begun to telegraph their posture toward international FRAND disputes, and a pending US appeal in litigation between two operating companies may soon provide further clarity on how American courts will approach these issues.
April 8, 2019