Showing 21 - 30 of 440 news articles
Each week, RPX publishes the latest news on patent litigation and market trends. Never miss a headline. Get them delivered right to your inbox.
Another Slingshot Campaign, This One Involving IV Divestitures, Looks Likely
Patent Market, Patent Watch
The USPTO recently made public a transaction between Intellectual Ventures LLC and Slingshot Technologies LLC, an entity with ties to the similarly named NPE Slingshot Printing LLC, which has an ongoing campaign asserting former Lexmark International patents (and which this past week filed its fourth suit against HP). While Slingshot Technologies has not filed any litigation as of the publication date of this report, the recent recording of its acquisition from IV—which comprised assignments in late 2018 and early 2019, involving over 20 US assets of disparate origins—suggests that the launch of its inaugural campaign may be imminent.
September 27, 2019
Acacia Launches Its First New US Campaign in Years, with Signs of More Litigation in the Pipeline
Patent Market, Patent Watch
As reported repeatedly by RPX over the past year, Acacia Research Corporation’s litigation efforts are picking back up following a comprehensive leadership change triggered by activist investors in 2018. While Acacia’s freshly reconstituted board is reportedly working to “advance” the company’s IP business (including through augmenting Acacia’s IP portfolio through “acquisitions and partnerships”), USPTO records suggest that the NPE already has at least one new litigation campaign in the pipeline, perhaps involving patents originating with Fairchild Semiconductor or Micron. Meanwhile, this week saw Acacia—via a newly created subsidiary, Targeted Radio LLC—kick off its first new US campaign in four years with a suit against Pandora Media. The new suit against Pandora joins a number of recently filed cases in already existing Acacia campaigns, including one initiated over ten years ago.
September 27, 2019
More Wireless Earbuds Targeted in New Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Google Pixel Buds (8:19-cv-1840) and Samsung Gear IconX (8:19-cv-01856) earbuds have joined Apple’s AirPods and Powerbeats Pro as accused products in the new litigation campaign of inventor-controlled Pinn, Inc. Two weeks ago, Pinn began asserting a single patent generally related to interaction between “wireless earbuds” (housed in “main body”) and a smartphone in a Central District of California case against Apple, adding separate suits in the same venue against Alphabet (Google) and Samsung this past week. The plaintiff has also alleged infringement of up to two published applications related to the patent-in-suit.
September 27, 2019
Dynamic Data’s International Campaign Continues to Expand in Delaware
New Patent Litigation
The international litigation campaign of Dynamic Data Technologies LLC continues to expand in the US, with the NPE filing suit against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) together with Qualcomm (1:19-cv-01806) in the District of Delaware. The new case joins other complaints transferred there from the Eastern District of Texas (including cases filed separately against Alphabet (Google) and Qualcomm, both with other defendants and alone) and filed originally in Delaware (including separate suits against AmLogic and Brightcove). Five patents, generally related to image and video processing, are asserted against Lenovo and Qualcomm, one of them new to litigation, bringing the number of patents-in-suit closer to three dozen. Infringement allegations target Lenovo “cell phones, tablets, and other computing devices that contain integrated circuits designed, manufactured, sold and/or offered for sale by Qualcomm with video encoding and/or decoding functionality”. At issue are image/video processing, encoding, and decoding features, including those that support H.265 and/or VP9 video codecs.
September 26, 2019
Parity’s Networking Campaign Adds Eighth Defendant, This Time Dell
New Patent Litigation
Parity Networks LLC has filed suit against Dell (EMC) (6:19-cv-00550) in the Western District of Texas over the provision of certain networking hardware and software, including the Dell EMC PowerSwitch series network switches and the “Dell EMC Networking OS10” network hardware operating system. This new suit in a campaign that began with late 2016 cases filed against Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent) and Juniper Networks follows by several days the dismissal with prejudice of a case against Palo Alto Networks. The four patents-in-suit, as well as over a dozen asserted throughout the campaign, generally relate to various aspects of network traffic management.
September 23, 2019
Campaign Begun in 2005 Against Product Catalogs Currently Targets Use of Link-Shortening Services
New Patent Litigation
With the cases filed so far this month, inventor-controlled Internet Media Interactive Corp. (IMIC) has brought the number of defendants hit by this leg of its URL manipulation campaign over 60. Last week, IMIC sued TransUnion (9:19-cv-81282) in the Southern District of Florida, having hit Shutterfly (1:19-cv-08313) earlier in the month in the Southern District of New York, accusing each of infringing the sole patent-in-suit through the use of link shortening, allegedly provided in these two cases by Hootsuite and Sprinklr, respectively, with IMIC citing in its complaints contracts allegedly making each defendant vicariously liable, e.g., “a third-party link shortening service provider’s . . . performance” of certain recited steps of the highlighted claim (claim 11).
September 22, 2019
App Creation Tools of Apple and Salesforce Targeted in New DynaIP-Backed Campaign
New Patent Litigation
“Aftechmobile Inc.”, identified in new complaints as a Virginia entity, has filed separate suits against Apple (3:19-cv-05902) and Salesforce (3:19-cv-05903) in the Northern District of California. The plaintiff accuses each defendant of infringing a single patent broadly pertaining to creating mobile applications based on “pre-coded software components”: Apple through the provision of its Shortcuts application; Salesforce, its App Cloud Mobile service. Virginia state records contain the active entity Aftech Mobile Inc. (and do not appear to contain “Aftechmobile Inc.”), with additional records indicating that the entity does or has done business as “Mobrise Inc.”; whatever its proper name, the new plaintiff has become at least the fourth so far this year to disclose Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP) as a nonparty having an interest in the outcome of the proceeding.
September 21, 2019
Voice Control Vehicles Campaign "Drones" On
New Patent Litigation
Voice Control Vehicles, LLC (VCV), a subsidiary of Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC (SIS), has filed a fresh wave of cases in its sole litigation campaign, suing Esprit Model (6:19-cv-01816) in the Middle District of Florida and Best Choice Products (8:19-cv-01807), Contixo (8:19-cv-01808), and Yuneec (8:19-cv-01809) in the Central District of California. VCV asserts a single patent, generally related to a control system for a flying device, with infringement allegations focusing on radio transmitters (as to Esprit Model) and/or drones, used in combination with apps and a mobile device (as to the others). Prior cases in the campaign, begun in September 2018 with a suit against Alpha Group and subsequently hitting AWW Industries and DGL Group, World Trading 23, and MukkiM, have been dismissed within months of filing.
September 20, 2019
Named Inventor, Through a California Entity with Financial Backing, Targets Apple’s AirPods and Powerbeats Pro Products
New Patent Litigation
Inventor-controlled Pinn, Inc. has filed suit in the Central District of California against Apple (8:19-cv-01805), alleging infringement of a single patent generally related to interaction between “wireless earbuds” (housed in “main body”) and a smartphone. The plaintiff identifies Apple’s AirPods and Powerbeats Pro as the accused products, further providing notice of alleged practice of forthcoming claims in two published applications related to the patent-in-suit. Pinn pleads in its complaint that it first contacted Apple about its technology in October 2016.
September 20, 2019
Fortress Doubles Down on Litigation Finance with Acquisition of Vannin Capital
Patent Market, Patent Watch
In the coming weeks, Fortress Investment Group LLC is expected to complete its acquisition of Vannin Capital, a UK-based litigation funder with offices in the US, France, Germany, and Australia that touts having $500M in available investment capital and assets under management “consistently in the billions”. The deal comes roughly a year after Vannin announced its plans to issue £70m (nearly $90M) in new shares on the London Stock Exchange in an IPO that was shelved shortly thereafter. Fortress, which was acquired by SoftBank in late 2017 and has approximately $40.9B under management—has a long-standing partnership with Vannin. Fortress also has a growing stockpile of patents and over 40 active litigation campaigns in the US today.
September 20, 2019