Dali Wireless Inc. has filed another trio of lawsuits, one against each of AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (2:23-cv-00246), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:23-cv-00247), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:23-cv-00245), each together with codefendant CommScope, all in the Eastern District of Texas. A single patent, familiar to the campaign and generally related to a distributed antenna system, is asserted in each complaint. For the past several years, this campaign has seen a dizzying array of cases naming as defendants these three wireless carriers (AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless) as well as one or more their alleged suppliers: CommScope, Corning, and/or Ericsson. An appeal from a stipulated final judgment of noninfringement in CommScope’s favor before the District of Delaware (based on certain claim constructions) is nearing oral argument before the Federal Circuit, while the appeal from a Northern District of California summary judgment of noninfringement in Corning’s favor is just getting started. Meanwhile, a stay in an earlier Texas case suggests that Dali Wireless and Ericsson are close to a settlement.

Operating company patents continued to spread among NPEs throughout 2022, including to familiar faces in patent monetization. While a number of those recipients have yet to file any litigation, several did launch new campaigns during the fourth quarter—some with the backing of third-party litigation funding.

Dali Wireless Inc. has opened up a second litigation campaign, suing Corning (Corning Optical Communications) (3:22-cv-00623) in a new Western District of North Carolina complaint over the provision of certain fiber optics enclosures, including its Optical Splice Enclosure, Closet Connector Housing, and ODF Swiveling Patch Panel. Three patents broadly directed to certain telecommunications cable enclosures are asserted, currently available USPTO records suggesting that they have taken an indirect path from original assignee ADC Telecommunications to their current owner, with Dali Wireless pleading that it has filed suit as the patents’ exclusive licensee.  

Dali Wireless Inc. has sued another wireless carrier, this time Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:22-cv-00414), together with its alleged suppliers, again here CommScope and Ericsson, in a single suit. In January of this year, the plaintiff filed similar cases, one against AT&T (AT&T Mobile) and those same two companies and the other against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) together with CommScope, Corning, and Ericsson. AT&T Mobile and Verizon Wireless have moved to sever and stay the claims against them under the customer-suit doctrine. Asserted throughout this campaign have been overlapping sets of patents generally relate to a Distributed Antenna System (DAS), with infringement allegations targeting “small cell wireless solutions” incorporated into LTE and 5G networks.

Toward the beginning of January, Dali Wireless Inc. filed suit against CommScope, together with AT&T and Ericsson, in a single Eastern District of Texas complaint. At the end of the month, the same plaintiff hit CommScope in a new Western District of Texas case (6:22-cv-00104), this one also tagging Corning, Ericsson, and Verizon (Verizon Wireless), with infringement allegations focusing on the incorporation of “small cell wireless solutions” purportedly provided by CommScope, Corning, and Ericsson within Verizon’s LTE and 5G networks. The two January suits widen the disputes between Dali Wireless and both CommScope and Corning, which are long-standing litigants elsewhere, including in Delaware, where District Judge Maryellen Noreika has disposed of a flurry of dispositive motions in relatively short order.

Last week, Dali Wireless Inc. opened up another front in its patent litigation battle with CommScope, Dali filing yet another case, this one in the Eastern District of Texas that also names AT&T and Ericsson as defendants (2:22-cv-00012). Litigation between CommScope and Dali Wireless dates back to February 2016. That case led to a June 2019 Northern District of Texas jury verdict awarding damages for competing infringement findings. A Federal Circuit appeal was taken, resulting in a reversal as to only one of two infringed Dali Wireless patents, while yet another case between the two, filed by Dali against CommScope in the District of Delaware in early 2019, preps for trial, now set for spring 2022—there, District Judge Maryellen Noreika has just adopted a fellow judge’s procedure “to combat excessive summary judgment motion practice in patent cases”.