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Second Rothschild Plaintiff Sues SiriusXM
New Patent Litigation
The bulk of the Eastern District of Texas complaint that Quantum Technology Innovations, LLC just filed against Liberty Media (SiriusXM) (2:24-cv-00246) is devoted to recounting the prosecution history of the sole patent-in-suit and to pleading defensively against an Alice attack. The intensity of that focus is perhaps motivated by the SiriusXM motion challenging the patents asserted against it this past December—by Display Technologies, LLC, which, like Quantum, is a plaintiff associated with Leigh M. Rothschild—as patent-ineligibly drawn to the abstract idea of “transferring a digital media file”. There, SiriusXM cites a prior court order characterizing Display’s “goal”: to pursue a “’nuisance-value’ settlement” through a “ransom” that SiriusXM does not wish to pay.
April 20, 2024
Delaware Judgment Appears to End Long-Running Post-Settlement Dispute
In Case You Missed It
Late last month, District of Delaware Judge Gregory B. Williams appears to have disposed of all of the many claims that hung over the distribution of a $125M settlement that ended the campaign of ChanBond, LLC in June 2021. The parties to the case include CBV, Inc., the inventor-controlled source of the patents asserted against 13 cable providers from 2015-2017; Deirdre Leane, formerly with IP Navigation Group, LLC (d/b/a IPNav); and IPNav, LLC, a Texas entity that she created in the wake of IPNav’s winddown, but other parties relevant to this complicated dispute also include UnifiedOnline, Inc. (UOI), ChanBond’s parent; the shareholders of UOI, which sought to intervene in the lawsuit; William (“Billy”) Carter, the CEO of UOI; Omni Bridgeway Limited (f/k/a IMF Bentham Limited), the litigation funder here; and Mishcon de Reya, litigation counsel.
April 14, 2024
30 Becomes 40 in Roughly a Week
New Patent Litigation
Last month, the number of defendants in inventor-controlled plaintiff VDPP LLC’s sole litigation campaign ticked past 30, but since—with new suits against Best Buy (2:24-cv-00164), Boxlight (7:24-cv-00069), Canon (3:24-cv-00570), Honeywell (4:24-cv-00798), HP (7:24-cv-00068), JVCKenwood (2:24-cv-01881), NEC (3:24-cv-00566), Qisda (BenQ) (2:24-cv-00171), Razer (7:24-cv-00070), and Ushio (Christie Digital Systems USA) (2:24-cv-00156)—that number has pushed above 40. This growing campaign targets the support for image processing features across a wide array of products.
March 15, 2024
Court Grants Ramey LLP’s Request to Withdraw (with an Asterisk)
In Case You Missed It
Northern District of California District Judge Jon S. Tigar has granted a request by Ramey LLP to withdraw from its representation of Lauri Valjakka in his case against Netflix, a request that Netflix opposed. The court found good cause to authorize withdrawal through the nonpayment of fees to Ramey LLP by Valjakka and by third party AiPi, LLC, fees now owed that Ramey LLP claims comes to more than $1.1M. Although permitted to withdraw, Ramey LLP may not have seen the last of this case.
March 10, 2024
Illinois Complaints Slip Through Rapidly Closing Damages Window
New Patent Litigation
California plaintiff Touchmusic Entertainment LLC has accused Amazon (Amazon Web Services) (1:24-cv-01786), Apple (1:24-cv-01787), and Netflix (1:24-cv-01789) of infringing a single, expired “real-time music distribution” patent in separate Northern District of Illinois complaints. The alleged infringement for which damages are sought spans four days (from March 2, 2018 to March 5, 2018) for Amazon and Apple, and three days (from March 3-5) for Netflix. Amazon is targeted over the provision of “its CloudFront internet deliver and cloud storage online services”; Apple, of its “iTunes platform”; and Netflix, of its Watch Instantly service.
March 3, 2024
Stage Nearly Set for “Patent Troll Protection Act” Showdown Between Rothschild and Valve
Patent Litigation Feature
Valve has filed a second amended complaint in the Western District of Washington case (2:23-cv-01016) begun last July against Leigh M. Rothschild and three associated entities Display Technologies, LLC; Patent Asset Management, LLC; and Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), together with Rothschild counsel Meyler Legal, PLLC and its principal Samuel Meyler. The defendants have refiled a motion to dismiss the complaint in which they argue that Valve is “attempting to make ‘a mountain out of a mole hill’ by characterizing a simple clerical error as some sort of legal malfeasance” under the state’s “Patent Troll Protection Act”. Meanwhile, venue challenges in Eastern District of Texas cases filed this past September by three other Rothschild plaintiffs—Quantum Technology Innovations, LLC; Social Positioning Input Systems, LLC (SPIS); and Symbology Innovations, LLC—are ripening.
February 14, 2024
Truesight Communications Tags Lenovo and TCL in Second Wave of Complaints
New Patent Litigation
Following its case against Samsung last month, Truesight Communications LLC—managed by a familiar patent monetization figure—has expanded its sole litigation with a pair of suits against Lenovo (2:24-cv-00031) and TCL (2:24-cv-00032) in the Western District of Texas. The four patents-in-suit are broadly directed to the “storage and display of digital media”, with infringement allegations targeting devices (i.e., smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs) that support features for implementing “content restriction” via the Google Family Link and Disney+ services, streaming content on the Netflix mobile app, navigating “chapters of video content” through the YouTube mobile app, and the incorporation of a UFS 2.1 memory module.
January 28, 2024
New Litigation Funding Operation Stands Up
Patent Market, Patent Watch, TPLF
A set of security interests executed last month, subsequently recorded and recently made public by the USPTO, has brought a new source of patent litigation funding into view. Six entities granted these interests to the same secured party, and three of those entities have already initiated litigation, suing defendants in the mobile communications and content distribution spaces.
January 27, 2024
Inventor-Backed Piranha Trains “Intersplicing” Patents on Hulu’s Streaming Service
New Patent Litigation
Piranha Media Distribution, LLC (f/k/a Piranha Media Distribution, Inc.) has filed its first litigation, suing Disney (Hulu) (2:24-cv-00498) in the Central District of California. The plaintiff asserts two patents generally related to providing advertisements within a “digital media system”. Hulu is accused of infringement through the provision of its ad-supported streaming service, with features for providing advertisements based on “DASH interoperability guidelines and the MPEG-DASH streaming standard” at issue.
January 20, 2024
After Winning on Standing and Defending Against Alice, Flexiworld Sues Sony
New Patent Litigation
Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. has added an Eastern District of Texas case against Sony (2:23-cv-00616) to the litigation campaign that it began back in June 2020. Nearly 40 wireless connectivity and streaming patents have now been asserted here, 15 of them in the new suit against Sony, with litigation still active against that first defendant, Amazon (in the Western District of Washington), as well as against Lexmark (in the Eastern District of Kentucky) and Xerox (in the Western District of New York). Flexiworld targets Sony over the provision of a wide array of products, including certain audio devices (i.e., speakers, headphones, and soundbars), gaming consoles, smartphones, and televisions.
January 3, 2024