Showing 21 - 30 of 416 news articles
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April 2019 RPX Acquisitions Update
Patent Market, Patent Watch
RPX completed a number of acquisitions in April 2019 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Networking; Media Content and Distribution.
May 26, 2019
Federal Circuit Revives Two Former IBM Patents, Now Owned by Fortress, from Alice Invalidation
Patent Litigation Feature
The Federal Circuit has breathed new life into a campaign begun by Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited in April 2016—before the Australian NPE began ramping up its litigation activity in 2017, before it acquired the large portfolio of patents from Pendrell Corporation in early 2018, and before it transferred control over its patent assets to Fortress Investment Group LLC in May 2018. Throughout 2016 and 2017, Uniloc accused a wide range of defendants of infringing up to four patents, sourced from IBM, through their software licensing and delivery systems. Multiple decisions in the Eastern District of Texas, however, invalidated all four patents under Alice, stopping the campaign in its tracks. Now, in a May 24, 2019 nonprecedential opinion, the Federal Circuit has reversed the district court as to two of those patents while affirming the invalidity of the other two. The case has been remanded back to Texas for further proceedings in the underlying cases, filed against ADP, Big Fish Games, BitDefender, and Kaspersky Lab, but the decision could revive litigation dropped as to other defendants as well.
May 25, 2019
US Patents Continue to Roll out of IV…to NPEs, to OpCos, and to Court
New Patent Litigation
Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) has been divesting patent assets at an accelerating rate over the past couple of years, in batches both big and small. For example, as reported this week, Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC affiliate Vista Peak Ventures, LLC continues to assert a subset of over 1,200 former NEC patents that the NPE acquired from IV last year, and, as reported just last week, IV transferred a more modest set of patents, numbering around 50, to Steephill Technologies LLC, which passed them immediately along to Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. in apparent preparation for assertion. That assertion is simply “apparent” no longer. This week, Cedar Lane has accused Advert Tech (1:19-cv-03442) of infringing three of those patents in a new complaint filed in the Northern District of Illinois targeting the provision of Ex++ Series Network Cameras such as the “Long Range Bullet Camera”.
May 25, 2019
Dominion Harbor Campaign over Former NEC Patents, Received from IV, Continues Hitting Chinese Flat Panel Display Manufacturers
New Patent Litigation
Vista Peak Ventures, LLC (VPV), an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC, has filed a notice of settlement in a set of four cases brought in October 2018 against BOE Technology Group, a Chinese manufacturer of flat-panel displays. The NPE has concurrently filed two new sets of four cases apiece, one set filed against Giantplus (2:19-cv-00183, -00184, -00185, -00187) and another set filed against TCL (2:19-cv-00188, -00189, -00190, -00191), again targeting the Chinese companies over their provision of flat-panel displays. Each defendant faces infringement allegations related to between 12 (Giantplus) and 18 (TCL) patents that VPV acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) as part of a large portfolio of former NEC assets.
May 25, 2019
Longtime Plaintiff Aims Infringement Allegations at Compliance with a Different Set of JEDEC Standards
New Patent Litigation
The litigation campaign of individual named inventor James B. Goodman came to an abrupt halt in mid-2018 after a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Texas, upon hearing arguments over a motion for summary judgment of noninfringement brought by HP, indicated an inclination to grant that motion. The magistrate filed a report and recommendation along those lines, Goodman responded with objections, and District Judge Keith P. Ellison overruled those objections, adopted the magistrate’s recommendations, and dismissed the case. Meanwhile, because the infringement allegations elsewhere were similarly premised on the alleged compliance with certain JEDEC standards, Goodman promptly dismissed suits against Acer, ASUSTek, and Lenovo in the Northern District of California and against Samsung in Southern District of New York. The campaign, however, appears not to be over after all; this past week, Goodman sued NVIDIA (1:19-cv-04661) in the Southern District of New York over the same patent, this time alleging infringement through the provision of graphics cards incorporating certain GPUs and GDDR5, GDDR5X, or GDDR6 memory, allegedly practicing relevant (and different) JEDEC standards JESD212C, JESD232A, and JESD250B, respectively.
May 25, 2019
Touch Sensor Campaign Is Fourth to Be Launched by an Irish NPE Since Late December
New Patent Litigation
Irish entity Neodrón Limited has become the third to launch a patent litigation campaign in the US over the last six months, joining Data Scape Limited and Solas OLED Limited. Neodrón accuses Amazon (6:19-cv-00317), Dell (6:19-cv-00318), HP Enterprise (HPE) (6:19-cv-00319), Lenovo (6:19-cv-00320), Microsoft (6:19-cv-00321), Motorola Mobility (6:19-cv-00322), and Samsung (6:19-cv-00323), in separate Western District of Texas complaints, of infringing up to four patents generally related to touch sensors and controls through the provision of computing devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones with touchpads or touchscreens. One day later, the NPE filed a complaint (337-TA-3389) with the International Trade Commission (ITC) over the same group of patents and against the same seven proposed respondents.
May 25, 2019
Judge Koh Rules for FTC in Qualcomm Suit, Permanently Barring Company’s License-for-Chips Strategy
Top Insight
District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California has ruled for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm (5:17-cv-00220). In a 233-page findings of fact and conclusions of law issued on May 21, Judge Koh found that Qualcomm had held monopoly power in the CDMA modem chip and premium LTE modem chip markets and that it had violated antitrust law by requiring that mobile device makers take licenses to its patents before they could buy chips. This, Judge Koh held, allowed the company to collect anticompetitive licensing rates that exceeded fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) levels. Judge Koh also held that Qualcomm had breached its FRAND obligations by refusing to license its competitors, finding that its reasons for doing so were pretextual. As a result, Judge Koh issued a permanent injunction barring Qualcomm from requiring a license to purchase chips and ordered the company to renegotiate its licenses in good faith and without discrimination, with FRAND royalty rates to be determined through arbitration. Judge Koh further enjoined the company from entering into “express or de facto exclusive dealing agreements” with respect to modem chips and from entering into confidential agreements restricting the disclosure of antitrust violations.
May 24, 2019
Data Scape Campaign Stumbles After Alice Ruling, Prompting New Complaints and the Addition of Another Patent
Patent Litigation Feature
Irish NPE Data Scape Limited has hit a snag in its ongoing cloud computing campaign with the invalidation of four of its patents under Alice. In an order issued on May 17, District Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California granted a Rule 12 challenge filed by defendant Western Digital, holding that the four patents are invalid as directed to the abstract idea of “data storage, transfer, and processing” without the addition of an inventive concept. The patents just invalidated are at issue throughout the campaign, and Judge Carter’s ruling has already prompted the plaintiff to file a series of new complaints asserting patents not yet invalidated—including one asserted for the first time.
May 24, 2019
Rovi Mounts Constitutional Challenge to Inter Partes Reviews
Patent Litigation Feature
“In creating inter partes reviews, Congress intended to provide [a] quick and cost effective alternative[] to litigation in the courts . . . It also created an unconstitutional one” (internal citations omitted). So begins the appellate brief filed in April by Rovi Guides, Inc., a subsidiary of TiVo Corporation. Rovi has appealed (2019-1215) the cancellation of claims from one of its “remote interactive program guide” patents by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The company brings a constitutional challenge to this PTAB authority, arguing that because Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) hired to adjudicate inter partes reviews (IPRs) “have the authority to render a final decision on behalf of the United States, without review by any higher executive-branch official”, they are “principal officers” who must be appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice (USDOJ) filed a notice of intervention in the appeal, the Federal Circuit lifted a temporary stay to await word of the government’s intentions, and that court set a deadline for the USDOJ’s brief on the same day that the brief of appellee and IPR petitioner Comcast is due.
May 23, 2019
IV Appears Poised for Further Divestitures
Patent Market, Patent Watch
As reported repeatedly as the assignment of its patents have been recorded with the USPTO and as compiled in a comprehensive report on RPX Insight, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) has accelerated its divestiture of patent portfolios over the past couple of years. The transacted patents have flowed to various NPEs, some of them already well known to litigation and some that appear to be new to patent monetization. Other IV patents have been picked up by operating companies. Whatever their planned destinations, currently available USPTO assignment records suggest that the flow of patents, some for possible assertion in litigation, will not dry up any time soon.
May 17, 2019