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Seven Patents, Received from IV but Originating from Disparate Sources, Asserted in New Computer Hardware Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Longhorn HD LLC, a Texas entity created in mid-January, has launched a new litigation campaign, suing Acer (2:18-cv-00221), ASUS (2:18-cv-00222), Fujitsu (2:18-cv-00223), Giga-Byte Technology (2:18-cv-00224), Hitachi (2:18-cv-00225), and MiTAC (2:18-cv-00226). Seven patents, developed at disparate sources but all apparently received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), have been asserted across Longhorn HD’s complaints. Each of those pleadings targets servers and server enclosures with three of the patents: two generally related to connecting rack-mounted computers and the third to “hot-swappable” ATA hard disk drives. Acer, ASUS, and Fujitsu are further accused of infringing the other four patents, two of them through the provision of desktop computers that incorporate hard disk drives manufactured by either Hitachi or Western Digital and the other two through the manufacture and sale of certain laptop computers.
May 24, 2018
Mid-May Assignment Records Include More IV Divestitures and an Acquisition by Conversant
New Patent Litigation
Last year saw a rash of litigation asserting patents passed from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) to IQ Holdings, LLC, and a recent assignment suggests that more is on the way. Also of note among mid-May patent assignments is a transfer from Panasonic to Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc.
May 18, 2018
Heart Rate Monitoring Wearables at Issue in New Dominion Harbor Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Four months after RPX noted the assignment of eight patents from Impact Sports Technologies to Health Watch, LLC, the latter has kicked off a litigation campaign, suing Huawei (2:18-cv-00209) and Samsung (2:18-cv-00210) in the Eastern District of Texas. Each new complaint asserts the same six patents from the eight received, all generally related to a real-time vital sign monitoring device. The defendants are accused of infringement through the manufacture and sale of smartwatches and smartphones that interact to provide health monitoring features. Health Watch’s new complaints allege that “[o]ther heart rate monitor products, before the innovations of Impact Sports, either required a chest belt, were not continuous, or were inaccurate or inconvenient during exercise or daily activities”, the following paragraphs of the pleading replete with references to the common specification for purported inventive aspects of the asserted patents’ claims.
May 18, 2018
Realtime Adaptive Streaming Files More Cases in Colorado and Texas, Asks MDL Panel to Transfer Earlier Suits to Colorado
New Patent Litigation
The number of defendants in the sprawling litigation campaign of Realtime Data LLC (RTD) and its subsidiary Realtime Adaptive Streaming LLC (RAS) has now topped 100, with the latter entity’s new suits against AMD (1:18-cv-01173), Intel (1:18-cv-01175), LG Electronics (LGE) (6:18-cv-00215), and Mitel Networks (1:18-cv-01177), filed last week. RAS accuses the defendants of infringement through the provision of products that support the H.264 video compression standard, including its Scalable Video Coding feature/extension (which allows a video bitstream to contain a subset bitstream that can comprise a lower-resolution or lower-quality version of the video). The accused AMD products include GPUs and APUs incorporating its Video Coding Engine; the accused Intel products, QuickSync Video implemented in Intel Core I9-8950HK, Intel Core i7-8850H, Intel Core i7-8750H, Intel Core I5- 8500B, and Intel Core i3-8300T processors; LGE, smartphones, hybrid recording DVRs, video servers, and surveillance systems; Mitel, video communications products and routers.
May 17, 2018
IPinvestments Group Affiliates Continue to Litigate Patents Acquired Last Year from IV, Most Recently in New DVR Campaign
SynchView Technologies, LLC, an apparent affiliate of Atlanta-based monetization firm IP Investments Group LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group), has initiated a new litigation campaign, asserting a single patent generally related to digital video recorders (DVRs). The NPE has sued Atlantic Broadband Finance (1:18-cv-00723), Blue Ridge Communications (1:18-cv-00724), and Channel Master (1:18-cv-00725) in the District of Delaware, as well as Grande Communications Networks (1:18-cv-00412) in the Western District of Texas. Atlantic, Blue Ridge, and Grande are alleged to infringe through the provisions of DVRs and related services provided by TiVo, while Channel Master’s accused products are DVRs sold under its own brand.
May 17, 2018
More Bluetooth-Enabled Speakers Targeted in Newest IPVal Campaign
On the same day that Adiona IP, LLC filed suit against Samsung (2:18-cv-09135) in the District of New Jersey, the plaintiff, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), also tagged Bang & Olufsen (1:18-cv-00716), LG Electronics (LGE) (1:18-cv-00718), Libratone (1:18-cv-00719), and Peag (1:18-cv-00717) over the same media distribution patent in the District of Delaware. Adiona IP accuses the defendants of infringement through the provision of speakers having Bluetooth connectivity to smartphones and/or tablet computers—e.g., Samsung’s Radiant360 R1 speaker system (in connection with smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S9), LGE’s FH6 (in combination with smartphones like the LG G6), etc.
May 16, 2018
Intel DJs Tela Innovations in the Northern District of California
In May 2018, Intel filed suit against Tela Innovations, Inc., seeking multiple declaratory judgments from the Northern District of California, including noninfringement rulings as to six Tela chip design patents. Tela moved to transfer the case to Delaware, citing a forum selection clause in a nondisclosure agreement that the parties had signed, concurrently moving to dismiss for lack of a justiciable controversy between the parties. The court denied those motions, triggering a December 19 answer to Intel’s complaint by Tela. On that same day, and also in the Northern District of California, Tela filed separate cases accusing Acer (3:18-cv-07615), ASUSTek (5:18-cv-07616), and Micro-Star (3:18-cv-07617) of infringing an overlapping set of five chip design patents. The accused products are “laptops, desktops, computer tablets, all-in-one PCs, processors, notebooks, board-level computers, and servers, which contain an Intel microprocessor or printed circuit board using Intel’s Tri-Gate technology at a 22nm process node, a 14nm process node, or smaller”. A fourth complaint, filed against Lenovo (1:18-cv-02025) in the District of Delaware, contains analogous infringement allegations.
May 16, 2018
Federal Circuit Backs Existing Rule Allowing Suits Against Foreign Defendants in Any District
The Federal Circuit has declined to revisit the US Supreme Court’s precedent allowing suits to be brought against foreign defendants in any district. In its 1972 decision in Brunette Machine Works v. Kockum Industries, the Supreme Court held that a prior version of the statute providing that rule (presently 35 USC § 1391(c)(3)) governed suits against foreign patent defendants rather than the patent-specific venue statute, under the long-standing principle that foreign defendants fall outside all federal venue laws. That rule had been challenged by HTC in a February 21 petition for writ of mandamus, after a district court found in a suit brought by 3G Licensing S.A. and Koninklijke KPN that venue was proper as to HTC’s primary Taiwanese entity but not as to an American subsidiary. In a May 9 ruling denying that petition in In re: HTC, the Federal Circuit reaffirmed Brunette and rejected the argument that TC Heartland and 2011 amendments to the general venue statute precluded that case’s interpretation of the foreign venue statute (2018-0130).
May 16, 2018
Multiple Patents Naming Finjan Founder as Inventor Asserted Against Trend Micro in New Campaign
Three months after creating wholly owned subsidiary CUPP CyberSecurity LLC, Norwegian entity CUPP Computing AS has filed suit, together with the new Delaware LLC, against Trend Micro (3:18-cv-01251) in the Northern District of Texas. The plaintiffs assert (apparently as patent owner and exclusive licensee) eight patents from CUPP Computing’s portfolio of 24 issued US patents, generally related to security mechanisms for mobile networks and devices. Trend Micro is accused of infringement through the provision of various hardware and software cybersecurity products, including its User Protection, Network Defense, Hybrid Cloud Security, Worry-Free, Home Products, and Trend Micro Portable Security, as well as other products incorporating Trend Micro’s underlying technologies.
May 15, 2018
At One Month Old, Secure Cam Baby Monitor Campaign Doubles in Size
In the first of its two litigation campaigns, Secure Cam, LLC has focused its infringement allegations more squarely against VOXX International in a Northern District of California case (5:18-cv-02335) while adding a new suit, against VTech (1:18-cv-03375), in the Northern District of Illinois. The NPE filed an amended complaint in a suit brought this past April against Project Nursery that swaps out that defendant for VOXX Accessories, pleading that the latter makes the baby monitors for sale by Project Nursery. The VTech case also targets a long list of that company’s baby monitors. Both complaints assert a single patent generally related to transmitting video images over a network.
May 14, 2018