This week a Delaware District judge invalidated three Pi-Net patents that were at issue in the NPE’s suit against JPMorgan. The patents-in-suit relate to online transactions (5,987,500, 8,037,158, 8,108,492) and were found to be invalid for indefiniteness, lack of enablement, and lack of written description. In a memorandum granting JPMorgan’s motion for summary judgment of invalidity, Judge Sue L. Robinson stated that all three patents share a specification that fails to provide guidance on how the invention is to be implemented. “The claims are written in broad language,” said the judge, “but the specification lacks any disclosures of how to practice the ‘real-time’ transactions contemplated by the invention.”

Almost one year after its last large group of filings, Pi Net filed 30 new lawsuits as part of an ongoing campaign. The new suits target online retailers Aeropostale, American Eagle, AutoZone, Bath & Body Works, Best Buy,  Chicos, CVS, Dillards, Edible Arrangements, The Finish Line, Foot Locker, GameStop, Home Depot, JC Penney, The Jones Group, Jos A Bank, Kohls, Lowes, Macys, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Petco, Sears, Staples, Target, Toys “R” Us, Victoria’s Secret, Walgreens, Walmart, and WW Grainger. The patent asserted in the cases relates to transactions using an online application (8,346,894). Pi-Net’s earlier lawsuits targeted primarily financial institutions and travel companies.  The patent-in-suit, along with several related patents, has been previously asserted by Lakshmi Arunachalam, an individual inventor. 11/26, Eastern District of Texas, 2:13cv01016, 2:13cv01017, 2:13cv01018, 2:13cv01019, 2:13cv01020, 2:13cv01021, 2:13cv01022, 2:13cv01023, 2:13cv01024, 2:13cv01025, 2:13cv01026, 2:13cv01027, 2:13cv01028, 2:13cv01029, 2:13cv01030, 2:13cv01031, 2:13cv01032, 2:13cv01033, 2:13cv01034, 2:13cv01035, 2:13cv01036, 2:13cv01037, 2:13cv01038, 2:13cv01039, 2:13cv01040, 2:13cv01041, 2:13cv01042, 2:13cv01043, 2:13cv01044, 2:13cv01045