In the latter half of November, RPX saw recorded patent assignments to three NPEs that had already begun litigating the patents changing hands: Serenitiva LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, recorded receipt of a single patent with a colorful ownership history from Allied Security Trust; Robert A. Westerlund’s Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC recorded receipt of a single patent invalidated under Alice just days ago; and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology recorded receipt of the patent that it has just asserted in its first ever US litigation. RPX also took note of two transfers to NPEs of patents not yet related to any litigation: Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc. recorded receipt of over 20 patents from Panasonic, while Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. recorded receipt of just two patents from Pantech. Finally, RPX saw two litigating NPEs each record receipt of another batch of patents from familiar hands, Mantis Messaging, Inc. from Post SMS Global Co. Inc. (f/k/a Mobile Messenger) and DiamondOp, LLC from United Module Corporation.

In the past two months, three NPEs with ties to Robert A. Westerland—IP Communication Solutions, LLC, Content Aggregation Solutions LLC, and Nova Intellectual Solutions, LLC—have filed nearly 20 cases against a total of 18 operating companies, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Huawei, HTC, LG Electronics, Sharp, Sony, and ZTE. These NPEs’ principal place of business, according to their complaints, is a luxury condominium in Dallas, Texas owned by Westerlund—a well-known patent attorney, patent broker, and inventor connected to NPEs that have litigated both patents issuing to Westerlund and patents issuing to others but subsequently acquired for assertion.

Newly formed NPE Content Aggregation Solutions, LLC (CAS) has filed six suits, one each against Blu Products (3:16-cv-00527), Huawei (3:16-cv-00528), LG Electronics (3:16-cv-00529), Sharp (3:16-cv-00530), Sony (3:16-cv-00531), and ZTE (3:16-cv-00533). Each complaint asserts a single patent (8,756,155) generally related to assembling information from different Internet sources for display on a handheld device. CAS accuses the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of smartphones and tablets that include the Android operating system with Google Now cards functionality.