One recently formed NPE affiliated with Empire IP LLC has asserted a familiar patent in a new litigation campaign, while another has expanded an existing campaign, both in Texas. Listou Search Technologies LLC filed separate complaints against clothing retailers Men’s Wearhouse (5:16-cv-00144) and Stanley Korshak (5:16-cv-00145), asserting a single patent (6,216,139) generally related to the display of dialog boxes in a computer system. As in the prior campaign, litigated by the inventor in Delaware, the accused products are the defendants’ websites. Meanwhile, Theft Prevention Innovations LLC has added cases against AeroScout and Stanley Black & Decker (2:16-cv-01060), Elpas and Tyco (2:16-cv-01057), and RF Code (2:16-cv-01059). Two patents (7,671,741; 9,165,446) from a three-patent family generally related to anti-theft systems are asserted in the campaign, which targets the defendants’ asset tags and tracking systems.

A second NPE affiliated with Empire IP LLC has launched its first litigation campaign in the past week. Newly formed NPE Environment Sensor Systems LLC filed a single complaint on May 5 against Hunter Industries and SiteOne Landscape Supply, as well as ten John Does (2:16-cv-00480). Environment Sensor Systems alleges infringement of a single patent (7,231,298) generally related to an environment detection device that uses sensors to measure multiple conditions to determine what vegetation is capable of “thriving” there. The accused products include smart irrigation systems that contain various types of environmental sensors. This new lawsuit comes just two days after fellow Empire IP affiliate Theft Prevention Innovations LLC started a campaign of its own, asserting two security systems patents against multiple defendants.

Theft Prevention Innovations LLC (TPI), a newly formed affiliate of Empire IP LLC, has filed three complaints against four location tracking companies, AwarePoint (2:16-cv-00469), AiRISTA and Ekahau (2:16-cv-00470), and Sonitor Technologies (2:16-cv-00472). The May 3 complaints each assert two patents (7,671,741; 9,165,446) from a family of three that generally relate to a security system based on attachable security tags, each of which has an alarm that sounds when the tag is removed or moved into a predetermined “warning zone”. Defendants are accused of infringement through the sale of real-time location systems (RTLS) that use RFID or ultrasonic security tags.