Following similar suits filed in May against AMD, MediaTek, and Samsung, plaintiffs Continental Circuits LLC (as patent holder) and Continental Circuits of Texas LLC (as exclusive licensee) have sued Apple (6:21-cv-01049) and TSMC (2:21-cv-00383) over a group of expired patents generally related to circuit boards. This campaign made headlines last year when a judge in the District of Arizona issued an order granting in part a motion filed by defendants Intel and Ibiden to compel litigation funding discovery.

Last summer, Arizona NPE Continental Circuits LLC and Ibiden, supplier for codefendant Intel, notified the District of Arizona that the disputes underlying their litigation, running since June 2016, had been resolved by an arbitration proceeding that the parties entered into in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Dismissal with prejudice followed in July 2020. Now, the patent attorney behind the campaign has formed Continental Circuits of Texas LLC, the two entities filing new cases together as patent owner (Continental Circuits) and exclusive licensee (Continental Circuits of Texas), this time in Texas, one each against AMD (6:21-cv-00539), MediaTek (2:21-cv-00189), and Samsung (2:21-cv-00188).

With investors and analysts focused on the spread of coronavirus and its impact on global economic growth, expect the chatter around litigation finance as a “recession-proof asset class” to grow louder, and interest in the industry—which is reportedly already awash with capital—to mount. Meanwhile, early 2020 has seen a number of decisions notable in the ongoing debate over the disclosure of commercial litigation funding, as well as the emergence of yet more NPEs backed by private equity.

Notable in the ongoing debate over the disclosure of commercial litigation funding is a recent decision in a patent suit filed by NPE Continental Circuits LLC against Intel and Ibiden (2:16-cv-02026). On January 27, Judge David G. Campbell of the District of Arizona issued an order granting in part, and denying in part, the defendants’ motion to compel litigation funding discovery.

New Arizona NPE Continental Circuits LLC has filed a case against Intel and one of its suppliers, Ibiden (2:16-cv-02026), for alleged infringement of six patents generally related to circuit boards with a “roughened surface structure” to facilitate joining layers in a multilayer electrical device. The patents originated with a Florida company that produced printed circuit boards, including, according to the NPE’s complaint, for Intel and others, before the company’s bankruptcy in the late '90s. Continental Circuits accuses the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of a long list of products made with allegedly infringing circuit boards.