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Topsy-Turvy Video Casting Campaign Sees Another Round of Suits
New Patent Litigation
The dismissal in late August 2018 of a case filed by Sockeye Licensing TX LLC against Lenovo ended that NPE’s last round of suits, filed in the Central District of California. Sockeye has now begun another round, this one comprising cases filed against Panasonic (1:18-cv-01750) and Toshiba (1:18-cv-01749) in the District of Delaware, over Blu-ray players that allow playback on a connected TV of video received on a smartphone, and against Hisense (1:18-cv-05129) in the Northern District of Georgia, over Hisense Smartcast, which facilitates similar functionality. At issue in the new complaints are two patents from a five-member family generally related to the use of a wireless communications device (e.g., a cell phone) to control and provide network connectivity to standard desktop peripherals (e.g., a monitor and keyboard).
November 7, 2018
ReCAPTCHA Campaign Continues Its Five-Months Roll
New Patent Litigation
The file-and-settle ReCAPTCHA campaign of Confident Technologies, Inc. has snagged another defendant, Best Buy (3:18-cv-02552), on the heels of the dismissal of a prior suit, against Fandango. In its complaints, the NPE asserts a single patent generally related to automated tests for distinguishing humans from computers, targeting the use of ReCAPTCHA technology on the companies’ websites; in this most recent complaint, Confident accuses Best Buy of infringement through the use of Google’s ReCaptcha V2 verification check (without naming Google as a defendant). In each of the prior three cases, the defendant responded to the complaint with a Rule 12 motion, two of those attacking the patent-in-suit on Alice grounds.
November 7, 2018
In DSL Campaign, Sisvel Turns from CenturyLink and Frontier to Verizon
New Patent Litigation
In August 2017, Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) launched a litigation campaign over a portfolio of former Panasonic patents allegedly essential to the practice of the ITU G.994.1 standard related to DSL technology, asserting nine of them first against CenturyLink and then Frontier Communications. At the end of this past September, the CenturyLink case ended in a dismissal with prejudice after multiple stays to permit the parties to finalize an agreement resolving their disputes, and a similar set of stays has been entered in the case against Frontier, suggesting that an end to that case is imminent. Against this backdrop, Sisvel has filed a new suit, against Verizon (1:18-cv-01742), asserting the same nine patents and accusing Verizon of infringement through the provision of “DSL technology, equipment and services” that comply with the same standard.
November 6, 2018
NetSoc Files Second Case in Social Media Campaign
New Patent Litigation
NetSoc, LLC has filed a second case in the litigation campaign that it began by suing IAC/Interactive (Match Group) this past May. Filed in the Southern District of New York, the new complaint targets Chegg (1:18-cv-10262) with the same social networking patent over the provision of an online tutoring website, the accused features allegedly allowing users to search for tutors by name and subject area and to communicate with those tutors. A false start, that May case was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, only to be dismissed without prejudice and refiled in Northern District of Texas.
November 5, 2018
Throughout October, Fortress Hammers Both Familiar and New Defendants with Former Uniloc Patents
New Patent Litigation
By the end of the first week of October, Fortress Investment Group LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited had filed four cases against Alphabet (Google) this year. Since then, the floodgates have remained steadily open, with the NPEs hitting Google ten more times over the subsequent weeks. In May, Uniloc, a prolific plaintiff on its own, transferred over 600 US patent assets to Fortress, including much of a large portfolio that Uniloc had acquired in January 2018 from Pendrell Corporation. While many of the new cases against Google assert one of those former Pendrell assets, homegrown Uniloc patents and patents acquired from separate sources are at issue in others of those ten cases—and Google is not alone. Three recent Fortress-Uniloc cases have brought the total number of cases filed against Apple since the beginning of 2017 north of 20; a new case against Samsung joins more than ten such others over that same time period; and in recent weeks, the NPEs have also tagged Disney (ABC, ESPN), Hulu, and Netflix with one case apiece.
November 4, 2018
InterDigital Eyes Expansion in China
Patent Market, Patent Watch
InterDigital, Inc.’s third quarter earnings call on November 1 included an update on the company’s integration of Technicolor’s patent licensing business. It also revealed InterDigital’s potential plans for expansion in China.
November 4, 2018
Once Again, American Patents Expands Assertion of Disparate Set of Former IV Patents
New Patent Litigation
American Patents LLC ended October the same way it began the month—adding more cases to the litigation campaign that it started in September. The new suits name BlackBerry and TCL together (4:18-cv-00767); Best Buy, Hisense, Sharp, and TPV together (4:18-cv-00768); and Panasonic (4:18-cv-00766), all joining Acer, ASUS, HP, Huawei, LG Electronics (LGE), OnePlus, Samsung, and ZTE as defendants in the Eastern District of Texas. Across its complaints, American Patents targets—with patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)—the provision of a variety devices (including laptops, smartphones, and smart TVs) offering Google’s Chromecast streaming and/or keyboards with predictive text features and other features related to keyboard layout, as well as devices that support of Wi-Fi and/or cellular connectivity.
November 3, 2018
With Fresh Leadership at the Helm, Acacia Reboots Another Campaign
New Patent Litigation
In the wake of its recently announced leadership change, Acacia Research Corporation has revived yet another litigation campaign. Super Interconnect Technologies LLC (SIT), an Acacia affiliate, has filed suit against Alphabet (Google) (2:18-cv-00463) in the Eastern District of Texas; Huawei (2:18-cv-00462), Lenovo (1:18-cv-01729), Motorola Mobility (1:18-cv-01730), and Sony (1:18-cv-01731) in the District of Delaware; and ZTE (3:18-cv-02932) in the Northern District of Texas. SIT asserts three patents, generally related to communicating clock and data signals over a single clock transmission line, with mobile devices and laptops offering Universal Flash Storage (UFS) targeted across the campaign. In May 2016, a yearlong case against Samsung over the same three patents ended with a settlement during claim construction briefing.
November 2, 2018
New Delaware NPE Kicks Off International Litigation Campaign over Large Image and Video Processing Patent Portfolio
New Patent Litigation
Dynamic Data Technologies, LLC, a Delaware entity formed this past April, has launched an international litigation campaign over a large portfolio of patents recently acquired from MaxLinear. In the US, Dynamic Data has sued Alphabet (Google) (2:18-cv-00466), Amazon (2:18-cv-00461), AMD (1:18-cv-01715), Apple (2:18-cv-00464), HTC (1:18-cv-10180), NVIDIA (1:18-cv-01726), and Samsung (1:18-cv-00459) so far. In its complaints, however, the NPE pleads that it has begun enforcement actions against AMD, Google, and Microsoft in China (before the Nanjing Specialized Intellectual Property Tribunal) and against Apple in Germany. Dynamic Data further pleads that it is “pursuing remedies for infringement of its patents” in an effort to facilitate the licensing of “foundational technology” in image and video processing developed by Philips, the history of which the NPE recounts in detail in its complaints, from making carbon-filament lamps in 1891 to work in the 1960s leading to patents alleged to disclose “cutting-edge video compression and transmission technologies”.
November 2, 2018
Split Federal Circuit Denies Early Review of Google Venue Challenge
Patent Litigation Feature
Since the US Supreme Court issued its May 2017 decision in TC Heartland, holding that a corporate defendant “resides” for venue purposes only in its state of incorporation, patent litigation has dispersed from its prior epicenter in the Eastern District of Texas. While some defendants have since successfully challenged venue in that district on corporate residence grounds (the first prong of the patent venue statute, 35 USC Section 1400(b)), others have had to litigate the second prong of the statute not addressed in TC Heartland, under which suits can be brought where a defendant “has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business”. One such defendant is Google, which contested venue based on that second prong in litigation brought by Seven Networks LLC, an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC. On October 29, a split Federal Circuit declined on mandamus to overturn District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s July denial of that motion.
November 2, 2018