Showing 11 - 20 of 518 news articles
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A Batch of Network Security Patents, Held for Years by IV, Appear in Recent Litigation Campaign
Patent Market, Patent Watch
FireNet Technologies, LLC has followed up last month’s case against KEMP Technologies (1:18-cv-05564) in the Southern District of New York with a second suit in the campaign, this one filed against Fujitsu (2:18-cv-00270) in the Eastern District of Texas. Both complaints assert four patents, generally related to network security, recently received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). Fujitsu is accused of infringement through the provision of “networking products and services with firewall security, including, but not limited to, implementations comprising Fujitsu servers (such as PRIMERGY servers), Fujitsu storage equipment (such as ETERNUS servers), and incorporating Fujitsu network security solutions, such as NS Appliance and/or NS Options, including their dedicated, hardware, and cloud implementations”.
July 7, 2018
PTAB Sees Activity Involving Top NPEs, both Past and Present, in June 2018
New Patent Litigation
In June 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitioners wage validity challenges against a variety of prominent NPEs. Among those hit by petitions for AIA review in June was Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), which has not filed any new litigation in the US since October 2017, but continues to assert patents overseas; and NPEs affiliated with Fortress Investment Group LLC and Industrial Technology Research Institute. Also in June, the PTAB instituted trial for two IPRs against affiliates of top litigant IP Edge LLC, which remains the most prolific patent plaintiff of the past 18 years by the number of defendants added to US patent suits. In addition, the Board issued final decisions in IPRs against IV, the California Institute of Technology, inventor Daniel L. Flamm, and frequent litigants Realtime Data LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited.
July 7, 2018
While Forging Ahead with Litigation in the US and Europe, Finjan Brings in Another Big Licensing Deal
New Patent Litigation
Finjan Holdings, Inc. ended the second quarter of 2018 with yet another multi-million dollar deal, this one with Trend Micro. Under an agreement effective June 29, Trend Micro will obtain a license to Finjan’s cybersecurity patent portfolio for $13.4M. Trend Micro—which was sued in May by CUPP CyberSecurity LLC (an entity apparently unrelated to Finjan) over patents naming Finjan’s founder as inventor—has also agreed to transfer “select security-related patent assets” to Finjan. This appears to be the third large deal closed by Finjan this year: Earlier in Q2, cybersecurity company Carbon Black announced that it had entered into a patent license and settlement agreement with Finjan for $3.9M. In late February, Finjan signed a deal with Symantec for up to $110M.
July 6, 2018
Apple’s Siri in the Crosshairs of Publicly Traded Advanced Voice Recognition Systems’s First Suit
Biotech and Pharma, Patent Litigation Feature
In its most recent 10-Q, filed for the quarter ending on March 31, publicly traded Advanced Voice Recognition Systems, Inc. (AVRS) recounts its history, from the 1994 incorporation of its predecessor NCC, Inc. in Ohio, through its current “operations”, which “are related to patent monetization and the filing of additional patents”. In August 2015, AVRS entered into a “strategic advisory services” agreement with Dominion Harbor Group, LLC under which Dominion Harbor would advance costs up to $10M; however, the parties agreed to terminate the agreement in June 2017. In November 2016, AVRS also entered into a contingency fee agreement with law firm Buether Joe & Carpenter, LLC. Under that agreement, as modified following the termination of the Dominion Harbor agreement, the law firm would “represent AVRS in connection with investigating and asserting claims to the AVRS patents including licensing and litigation activities”, with “[a]ny and all advanced costs…only becom[ing] liabilities if successful”. AVRS then disclosed that it was “in discussion with two potential litigation funding sources” and has now filed its first litigation, suing Apple (2:18-cv-02083) in the District of Arizona.
July 6, 2018
Sookbox Development Asserts Second Patent in First Litigation in over a Year
Sookbox Development LLC has taken aim at Kodi, filing separate suits against Fry’s Electronics (6:18-cv-00331) and Wal-Mart (6:18-cv-00330) over products sold with the open source media player software pre-installed. The complaints assert a single patent generally related to controlling the delivery of media content via multiple “participant control devices”, respectively naming the Sungale Cloud TV box allegedly sold by Fry’s and an Android TV Box allegedly sold under the QFX brand by Wal-Mart. These new cases are the first filed by Sookbox Development in this campaign in over a year.
July 6, 2018
Recent Flurry of Litigation, Licenses, and Acquisitions by Quarterhill Involve Patents Acquired from OpCos
Quarterhill Inc. opened July with a trio of new suits against AMD, one each filed by Aquila Innovations, Inc. (asserting former OKI patents); Collabo Innovations, Inc. (over a former Panasonic patent); and Polaris Innovations Limited (involving former Infineon patents). The new litigation closely follows Quarterhill’s announcement of two licensing deals—one with Brother, the other with Etron, apparently involving patents from Kodak and Infineon, respectively—and acquisitions of patents from MagnaChip and Panasonic.
July 5, 2018
HP Enterprise and Micro Focus Sued over Network Simulation Patents
Wapp Tech Corp. and Wapp Tech Limited Partnership (collectively, Wapp Tech) have filed separate complaints alleging infringement of multiple network simulation patents by HP Enterprise (HPE) (4:18-cv-00468) and Micro Focus (4:18-cv-00469) through the “provision of systems for testing an application for a mobile device including and not limited to the LoadRunner, Performance Center, StormRunner and Mobile Center software products”. The accused products originated with HPE but were acquired by Micro Focus as part of a September 2017 spin-off and merger. The plaintiffs plead that HPE, under the agreement governing the merger, can “obtain licenses and sub-licenses for the benefit of Micro Focus” during a two-year term running from September 2016.
July 5, 2018
Mobile App Campaign Continues to Roll in 2018
Aeritas LLC’s file-and-settle litigation campaign continues unabated in 2018. The latest complaint, filed against Best Buy (6:18-cv-00327), comes as the March 2018 case against Taco Bell has been dismissed in light of apparent settlement and as a stipulation of dismissal, again in light of apparent settlement, has been filed in the March 2018 case against McDonalds. Throughout this campaign, begun in October 2011, Aeritas has asserted a growing family of patents generally related to delivering information to a mobile device based both on an input provided, sometimes verbally, and on the device’s location. The NPE accuses Best Buy of infringement through the provision of various features of its mobile app, including the ability to search for store locations based on the availability of saved items for purchase as well as location and/or context-aware notifications.
July 4, 2018
As Predicted, Beck Branch Sprouts a New Networking Litigation Campaign
Last week, in light of a second entity (Hertl Media LLC) to sue over former Nero AG patents passing through Delaware entity JLP United States Patent Solutions, LLC, RPX reported that Beck Branch, LLC, a Texas entity created in April 2018, had also received a patent passing through JLP but had yet to sue. What a difference a week makes. Beck Branch has filed a flurry of complaints over the patent received, generally related to network protocol conversion, against Cisco (6:18-cv-00310), Microsoft (6:18-cv-00311), and Samsung (6:18-cv-00312) in the Eastern District of Texas, as well as against Blue Jeans Network, Lenovo (Motorola Mobility), Polycom, Sony, Unify, and Vonage in the District of Delaware. The NPE targets a range of products—for example, Cisco is accused of infringement through provision of various communications products utilizing VoIP and/or PTSN; Microsoft, through the provision of its Exchange server and Outlook.com server products; and Samsung, through the provision of wearables as used with its S Health fitness data platform.
June 30, 2018
Supreme Court Grants Review of Federal Circuit’s Rule Applying On-Sale Bar for “Secret Sales”
The US Supreme Court has agreed to review the Federal Circuit’s controversial rule that allows the disclosure of confidential sales to trigger the on-sale bar. Under 35 USC Section 102(a), as amended by the America Invents Act (AIA), a patent cannot be granted if the claimed invention was “on sale, or otherwise available to the public” outside of a one-year grace period before the “effective filing date” of the patent. In May 2017, the Federal Circuit ruled in Helsinn Healthcare v. Teva Pharmaceuticals that this restriction, known as the on-sale bar, applies when a confidential sale of a patented invention is publicly disclosed even when the invention itself remains a secret, declining to rehear that decision en banc in March 2018. On June 25, the Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Helsinn Healthcare that challenges the Federal Circuit’s ruling. The petitioner criticized that holding for “cast[ing] substantial doubt on countless patents issued pursuant to” the USPTO’s post-AIA guidance, which stated that disclosures must make an invention available to the public for the bar to apply and that it is also not triggered by an inventor’s confidential disclosures to a third party.
June 30, 2018