For several years running, IP Edge LLC has been responsible for the most defendants added to NPE litigation campaigns throughout each calendar year. 2019 was no different. Last year saw roughly 400 defendants added to campaigns launched by plaintiffs associated with the Texas monetization firm, the campaigns spanning a wide range of technologies and now involving suits filed (and typically litigated in file-and-settle fashion) in myriad districts. A quick glance at the NPE’s January filings suggests that 2020 will see more of the same, while a recent Alice ruling may have just ended one of IP Edge’s 2019 campaigns.

For the sixth month in a row, a subsidiary of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC has started a new litigation campaign. Kaldren LLC sued Citigroup (5:17-cv-00066), General Mills (5:17-cv-00067), J.D. Power and Associates (5:17-cv-00068), NeilMed Pharmaceuticals (5:17-cv-00069), Pioneer (5:17-cv-00070), Procter & Gamble (5:17-cv-00071), and SunTrust Banks (5:17-cv-00072), asserting a family of four patents (6,098,882; 6,176,427; 6,820,807; 8,281,999) generally related to encoding digital data in a machine-readable format. The new complaints target the use of QR codes in the defendants’ products and services.

IP Edge LLC affiliate MagnaCross LLC has filed a fresh round of lawsuits, capping off a wave of year-end litigation by other NPEs also controlled by the prolific monetization firm. The latest MagnaCross complaints target Avaya (2:16-cv-01461), Comtrend (2:16-cv-01462), EnGenius (2:16-cv-01463), Huawei (2:16-cv-01464), Juniper Networks (2:16-cv-01465), Siemens (2:16-cv-01466), and Sierra Wireless (2:16-cv-01467), accusing the companies of infringing a single patent (6,917,304) generally related to wireless data transmission through the provision of wireless access points or routers.

Three NPEs formed in Texas in June 2015, Pherah LLC, Mod Stack LLC, and Packet Tread LLC, have kicked off second waves in each of their litigation campaigns over the past month. In the first five days of July, Pherah filed 18 individual complaints, suing the same number of companies of infringing a single patent (RE44,652) through provision of interactive sales features on their websites. A couple of weeks later, Mod Stack asserted a patent (7,460,520) generally related to connecting telephone calls between legacy circuit-switched networks and newer packet-switched networks against the networking products of six defendants: AudioCodes (2:16-cv-00796), Calix (2:16-cv-00797), Metaswitch Networks (2:16-cv-00798), Mitel (2:16-cv-00799), Shoretel (2:16-cv-00800), and Synway Information Engineering (2:16-cv-00801). These new rounds of filings by Mod Stack and Pherah join a second wave of suits lodged by Packet Tread LLC earlier this month (see “Packet Tread’s Campaign Shifts to Unified Communication Systems“, July 2015).

In the second half of March 2016, RPX saw twelve patent transfers to known NPEs recorded with the USPTO. Several of those transactions involved patents that have already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.

Mod Stack LLC, a Texas NPE formed in June 2015, has asserted in litigation yet another patent originally issuing to former networking equipment provider Paradyne (which was acquired by Zhone Technologies in September 2005). The patent-in-suit (7,460,520) generally relates to connecting telephone calls between legacy circuit-switched networks and newer packet-switched networks. The networking devices of eight defendants—Dialogic (2:16-cv-00294), Digium (2:16-cv-00295), GenBand (2:16-cv-00296), Grandstream Networks (2:16-cv-00297), Matrix Comsec (2:16-cv-00298), Patton Electronics (2:16-cv-00299), Sangoma (2:16-cv-00300), and Sonus Networks (2:16-cv-00301)—are the accused products in the campaign.