The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw a decline in petitions for AIA review filed against NPES in April 2017. While the total number of April petitions, 120, was somewhat less than the three-year monthly average of 150, NPEs were hit by 20 petitions in April, a 68.8 percent decline from 64 the previous month. The dip in April PTAB filings comes in the midst of an overall increase in PTAB petitions over the previous year, with the total number of petitions filed so far in fiscal year 2017 nearing 1,200 as of the date of this report (compared to just over 930 petitions during the same period last year). Prolific private litigants remain a regular target for PTAB petitions, with petitions filed in April against IP Edge LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, while Acacia Research Corporation was the only publicly traded NPE named in petitions brought during that month.

Spectra Licensing Group L.L.C., the licensing agent for the “Turbo Code” patents issued to Orange (f/k/a France Telecom), has filed a second 2016 lawsuit, adding a case against Broadcom (LSI) (3:16-cv-00899) to one it filed ten days earlier against Marvell (3:16-cv-00817). The new complaint again asserts a single patent (6,108,388) generally related to iterative signal processing. The defendants are accused of infringement through the manufacture and sale of certain read channel DSP devices. The complaint further alleges indirect infringement of customers, i.e., hard disk drive manufacturers, touting extensive US infringing activity by, e.g., Seagate during the typical sales cycle.

Spectra Licensing Group L.L.C., the licensing agent for the “Turbo Code” patents issued to Orange (f/k/a France Telecom), has filed its first lawsuit, against Marvell (3:16-cv-00817). The complaint asserts a single patent (6,108,388) generally related to iterative signal processing against the defendant for the manufacture and sale of certain read channel DSP devices. The complaint further alleges indirect infringement of customers, i.e., hard disk drive manufacturers.