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Plaintiff Managed by Former Intel Board Member Sues Samsung
New Patent Litigation
Arbor Global Strategies LLC has filed suit against Samsung (2:19-cv-00333) in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of three patents described as relating “to a new type of IC called a ‘stacked die hybrid,’ which allows for an extremely compact processor module with increased data speeds and processing efficiency”, using “inter-cell through-silicon vias (‘TSVs’) within an integrated circuit module, such as between die layers”. Targeted are products (“including Galaxy mobile phones, Galaxy Note, cameras, and Samsung computers”) that use the company’s ARM-based Exynos processor, its ISOCELL image sensor, its DDR4 memory module, and/or one of “Sony’s IMX family of image sensors”. The plaintiff identifies D. James Guzy, a named inventor for the patents-in-suit, as its chairman, president, and cofounder.
October 11, 2019
Federal Circuit Affirms Attorney Fee Award Against InvestPic, Issued After NPE Ignored Signs of Alice Invalidity
Patent Litigation Feature
The Federal Circuit has summarily upheld an award of attorney fees for SAP against InvestPic LLC that a district court had imposed after the NPE ignored warning signs that its patent was invalid. In the affirmed decision—issued by District Judge Ed Kinkeade in September 2017, months after he invalidated the patent-in-suit under Alice—the court held that the NPE’s case against SAP was exceptional under Octane, finding in part that InvestPic should have known its patent was likely directed to unpatentable subject matter, both due to explicit cautionary statements from the USPTO on that specific patent and because of applicable caselaw on Section 101. The Federal Circuit had also previously upheld the lower court’s Alice order, confirming in May 2018 that the patent is ineligibly directed to an abstract idea, in the form of a series of mathematical calculations. Later that summer, the appeals court declined to revisit that conclusion in light of a subsequently issued reexamination certificate.
October 10, 2019
Gilstrap Seeks to Avoid a “Legal Quagmire” by Extending Willful Blindness to Willful Infringement…Just Before the Voluntary Dismissal of the Underlying Suit
Patent Litigation Feature
Late last month, District Judge Rodney Gilstrap denied a motion, brought by defendant HTC, challenging, among other things, the specificity with which Motiva Patents, LLC pleaded the knowledge elements within its claims of indirect and willful infringement. Judge Gilstrap ruled that the plaintiff adequately pleads “willful blindness” in satisfaction of the knowledge requirements for inducement of infringement, contributory infringement, and willful infringement, all based on allegations in the complaint that HTC adopted a “policy or practice of not reviewing the patents of others” and “performed specific acts to implement and enforce” that policy: “Since Motiva has alleged that HTC has such a specific policy—a policy prohibiting review of patents—Motiva has plausibly alleged that HTC was willfully blind”. The late September ruling came just before a separate HTC motion challenging subject matter jurisdiction, prompting Motiva Patents to voluntarily dismiss the case last Sunday and triggering a race back to the courthouse, with the NPE refiling the next day in the Eastern District of Texas (9:19-cv-00181) and HTC filing a complaint seeking declaratory judgments of noninfringement from the Northern District of California (3:19-cv-06373).
October 9, 2019
Another Inventor-Backed NPE Opens Up a Wireless Earbuds Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Inventor-controlled Snik LLC has filed its first lawsuit, asserting two patents broadly pertaining to an earphone device with a magnetic “holder body” that activates when it senses decoupling from the magnets. Samsung (6:19-cv-00458) is accused of infringement through the provision of Level U Pro, Level U Pro Active Noise Cancelling, and Galaxy Buds wireless earphones. At issue are the magnetic wireless charging cases for the devices. Snik pleads that “in or about March and April of 2018” Samsung was made aware of the patents-in-suit “in writing and in at least one face-to-face meeting”.
October 9, 2019
Third “Section 101 Day” in Delaware—This One Not Held by Judge Stark—Leads to Disparate Results
Top Insight
In a new District of Delaware suit, Ortiz & Associates Consulting, LLC (OAC) has accused Panasonic (1:19-cv-01921) of infringing a single “multimedia” mobile device patent from a family of 30-plus members, targeting the mirroring features of the company’s Viera-series televisions. OAC asserted the same patent, together with others from the same family, in an August 2018 case in the same district against Roku, which responded with a quick motion to dismiss under Alice. Delaware District Judge Maryellen Noreika teed that motion up for argument on June 14, 2019—just five days short of the five-year anniversary of the Alice decision itself—in an omnibus hearing that addressed five Section 101 motions filed in cases before her, the others filed by OpenPrint LLC, Sandboxed Software, LLC (d/b/a Sandbox Software, LLC), TrackTime LLC, and EncodiTech LLC. Judge Noreika’s treatment of these motions on a “Section 101 Day” tracks the procedure already used in Delaware a couple of times this year by District Judge Leonard P. Stark. OAC is now suing Panasonic, begging the question: how did that Roku motion fare? More broadly, four months later, how did Judge Noreika’s “Alice day” affect the progress of those other NPE campaigns?
October 8, 2019
Zeroclick Expands Touch Screen Campaign Well Beyond Apple
New Patent Litigation
In June 2018, the Federal Circuit vacated a lower court order in which claims that Zeroclick, LLC had asserted against Apple in the Northern District of California were invalidated for indefiniteness. Roughly one year after remand, in June 2019, District Judge Jon S. Tigar handed down a new order, construing several disputed claim terms and rejecting Apple’s repeated indefiniteness arguments. Now, these several months later, Zeroclick has expanded its litigation campaign with a spate of new filings. The NPE accuses Dell (6:19-cv-00569), HP Enterprise (6:19-cv-00570), LG Electronics (LGE) (6:19-cv-00571), Microsoft (6:19-cv-00572), and Samsung (6:19-cv-00573) of infringing one or both of the patents already at issue against Apple, both generally related to a touch-only graphical user interface. The accused devices are various “touch screen computer products”.
October 6, 2019
Quarterhill Announces Another Executive Departure, This Time Its CEO
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Doug Parker has resigned as president and CEO of Quarterhill Inc., announced the company on October 1. Parker—who joined Quarterhill in January 2017—has also resigned as a board member of the company. His departure comes after Keaton Parekh, the CEO of Quarterhill’s licensing arm, Wi-LAN Inc., stepped down in Q1 following less than a year at the company.
October 6, 2019
Following Pivot to Cloud Location over Cellular Technology, Location Technology Startup Polte Announces Series A-2 Funding
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Polte Corporation announced on October 1 that it has raised $12.5M in “strategic funding” from “experienced private investors” (the identities of which it has not disclosed). “The Series A-2 funding will enable the company to focus on deployments of commercial and industrial applications of Polte’s patented alternative to GPS”, said the company in a press release. Last year saw Polte pivot to Cloud Location over Cellular Technology (C-LoC) following its earlier pursuits focused on indoor location tracking and Enhanced 911 services.
October 6, 2019
Princeps Moves to Drop Complaints After Challenge to Premature Assignment of “Universal Keyboard” Patent
New Patent Litigation
In June 2019, Princeps Interface Technologies LLC launched its sole litigation campaign with three District of Delaware lawsuits, one each against Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Samsung, about a month later adding another suit there against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) and a suit against ASUSTek in the Northern District of California. A single patent—generally related to an “input device” that allows the user to switch between different input modes, including different keyboard types—was asserted in the complaints, a patent that RPX noted appeared to have been received by Princeps three weeks before the NPE’s actual formation in Delaware. In early September, Google filed a motion challenging the plaintiff’s standing at the time of filing, noting that “[a]ny assignment purporting to convey rights to a non-existent entity is ineffective”. Princeps has subsequently moved to dismiss all five of its complaints, without prejudice. Apple, which had filed an answer in Delaware, has now filed a complaint (3:19-cv-06352) seeking a declaratory judgment from the Northern District of California that it has not infringed that same keyboard patent.
October 5, 2019
IP Edge Charges Up New Campaign with Patent Apparently Received from IP Bridge
New Patent Litigation
Boracho IP Holdings LLC has initiated yet another litigation campaign of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, filing suit against OutBack Power Technologies (2:19-cv-01558), Schneider Electric (1:19-cv-01823), Sensata Technologies (1:19-cv-01822), SMA Solar Technology (1:19-cv-01821), and Solax Power (4:19-cv-03748). The complaints assert a single patent, originating with Seiko Epson and generally related to a charging device with multiple power sources, of which Boracho pleads full ownership. Currently available USPTO records do not yet indicate an assignment away from Japanese monetization firm IP Bridge, Inc. (via Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1), which received the patent, together with three others, in September 2016.
October 4, 2019