Dual SIM Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Equitable IP Corporation, has filed its first lawsuit, targeting ASUSTek (3:20-cv-00814) over the provision of the Asus Zenfone 2 smartphone. At issue is the device’s dual-SIM (“subscriber identity module”) card use capability. Asserted is a single patent generally related to the use of multiple SIM (“subscriber identity module”) card readers in a “GSM cellular terminal”. The litigation is Equitable IP’s first new campaign in over a year but comes at the end of six months that have seen the NPE add additional defendants to a wide range of its existing campaigns, landing it back among the year-end list of most prolific NPE filers.

Post Media Systems LLC has kept its sole litigation campaign alive, filing suit against SoundCloud (2:16-cv-01269) after a September settlement with iHeartMedia and an October settlement with Spotify. All patents in a family of five (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,015,263; 8,725,832; 8,959,181) are asserted in the new complaint, subsets having been asserted against the prior two defendants. The family generally relates to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of their music and radio online services and related apps. Post Media’s is one of seven litigation campaigns, in disparate technical fields, initiated by entities managed by Erik Stamell, now the president of NPE Equitable IP Corporation, since November 2015.

High Frequency Trading Systems LLC (HFTS) has filed four new cases in the campaign it began in late 2015, asserting a single patent (7,231,363) generally related to electronically managing the exchange of financial instruments. Knight Capital (KCG BondPoint) (2:16-cv-13082), Liquidnet (2:16-cv-13077), MarketAxess Holdings (2:16-cv-13052), and MTS Markets (2:16-cv-13084) are accused of infringement through provision of online trading platforms. HFTS’s new filings provide just one example of the recent activities of its manager, Erik Stamell.

This past week saw the number of newly formed Texas NPEs managed by Michigan attorney Erik Stamell to launch litigation double, from two to four. First, Post Media Systems LLC asserted three patents (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,725,832) in new cases against iHeartMedia (2:16-cv-00649) and Spotify (2:16-cv-00650). Those patents-in-suit generally relate to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants accused of infringement through provision of their music and radio online services and related apps. Next, Optical Measurement Systems, LLC accused Broadcom (Avago) (1:16-cv-0468) and Marvell (1:16-cv-00469) of infringing a single patent (8,838,822), generally related to translating packet-based data into a serial data stream, through the sale of the defendants’ optical transceivers. Also this week, Digital Audio Encoding Systems, LLC added seven defendants to a campaign that it kicked off one month ago by filing a case against Apple. With nearly 20 new NPEs formed in Texas since August 2015, more Stamell-managed litigation campaigns seem destined to follow in 2016.