Recent history has repeated itself, with M2M Solutions LLC filing a third District of Delaware suit against Amazon (1:20-cv-01781) in the wake of a setbacks in the prior case. The latest complaint asserts the most recent member to issue in the family providing the patents asserted in the other two suits. The inventor-controlled NPE again accuses Amazon of infringement through the provision of its Kindle e-reader “ecosystem”, including the company’s e-readers and the Whispernet content delivery network. Multiple inter partes reviews (IPRs) have halted district court litigation in each of the prior suits, permanently with respect to the first.

Inventor-controlled NPE M2M Solutions LLC has filed a second Delaware suit against Amazon (1:18-cv-01532) as its previous suit against the company remains stayed pending the outcome of inter partes reviews (IPRs) against the patents-in-suit. This latest complaint asserts two newer family members of those at issue in the other suit. As in that first case, the NPE again accuses Amazon of infringement through the provision of its Kindle e-reader “ecosystem”, including the company’s e-readers and the Whispernet content delivery network. The complaint alleges that Whispernet infringes through the use of machine-to-machine, or M2M, communications to push content to Kindle devices.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw the number of petitions for AIA review filed against NPEs drop by more than half in August 2017, down to 30 petitions from 68 in July. Petitions were brought in August against publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc., inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, and a mix of prolific private litigants, including Blackbird Tech LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. Meanwhile, the Board instituted trial in August for petitions against a variety of entities, including the California Institute of Technology and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. as well as IP Bridge, Inc.; Realtime Data; and Uniloc. The PTAB also issued final decisions throughout August in campaigns waged by publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation; Advanced Touchscreen and Gesture Technologies, LLC; Elm 3DS Innovations LLC; and Rosetta-Wireless Corporation.

RPX took notice, among the assignment records published by the USPTO during the latter half of June, of the transfer of patents to several repeat players in patent litigation, including IP Edge LLC and Cerinet USA Inc. Also of note were two NPE-to-NPE transactions, from Intellectual Ventures LLC to IQ Holdings, LLC, and between M2M Solutions LLC and Blackbird Tech LLC.

M2M Solutions LLC has started a new litigation campaign, accusing Amazon (1:17-cv-00202) of infringing three device management patents (8,504,007; 8,577,358; 8,577,359) through its Kindle ecosystem, including the company’s e-readers and the Whispernet content delivery network. The latter is alleged to infringe through the use of machine-to-machine, or M2M, communications to push content to Kindle devices. This is the second campaign waged by the NPE, which appears to be controlled by a husband-and-wife pair of inventors and has previously listed an address in the United Kingdom.

In the third quarter of 2015, seven patent transfers to RPX were recorded with the USPTO:

In the first half of May 2015, RPX saw 15 patent transfers recorded with the USPTO.

For the first half of April, RPX saw 20 transfers of patents recorded with the USPTO.

M2M Solutions filed no new suits in 2013, but recently filed three new cases against Novatel Wireless, Sierra Wireless, and Telit. At issue is patent 8648717, which relates to a programmable device used in machine-to-machine communications. Embedded wireless module products that facilitate machine-to-machine communication are the accused products in these suits. M2M previously filed separate suits against Novatel, through its subsidiary Enfora, and Sierra in January 2012, asserting two patents related to the patent-in-suit; both cases are still active. Sierra filed for declaratory judgment of noninfringement of the ‘717 patent in February 2014. That case was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in June. 8/26, District of Delaware, 1:14cv01101, 1:14cv01102, 1:14cv01103