The last of Mobility Workx, LLC’s Eastern District of Texas cases against the big three US wireless carriers, targeting AT&T (AT&T Mobility), ended this past July. The plaintiff has now filed separate complaints in the same district against Cisco (4:24-cv-00799), Ericsson (4:24-cv-00796), Nokia (4:24-cv-00797), and Samsung (4:24-cv-00798). Two patents generally related to the allocation of network resources are asserted against each defendant, with a third patent, broadly pertaining to mobile network emulation, also at issue against Ericsson and Samsung. The accused products include a broad range of mobile devices and wireless networking equipment.

RPX’s last look at notable patent assignments considered the movement of assets to Ueran Technology LLC from Huawei; to AX Wireless, LLC from SOLiD; to VideoLabs, Inc. from DCX US Agility Platform LLC, a subsidiary of DXC Technology; to Flash Uplink LLC from its publicly traded parent Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC); to various entities from Ascend Innovation Management, LLC entities; and to Nera Innovations Limited from multiple entities associated with Atlantic IP Services. It is time for a review of additional notable transfers recorded since then.

After a somewhat complicated turn before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), involving two trips up to the Federal Circuit, Mobility Workx, LLC is back in district court, accusing AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (4:23-cv-00594) of infringing the same three patents, subsets of which were previously asserted against Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) and Verizon (Verizon Wireless). Two of the patents generally relate to the allocation of resources in a wireless network, while the third broadly concerns mobile network emulation to facilitate mobile device testing. Last July, the PTAB affirmed the cancellation of some, but not all, of the challenged claims from one of the two resource allocation patents.

The Federal Circuit has rejected allegations of structural bias within the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). On October 13, the court issued a precedential decision rejecting arguments from Mobility Workx, LLC that the PTAB’s leadership and compensation structure creates a financial bias in favor of instituting non-meritorious America Invents Act (AIA) reviews, purportedly in violation of the US Constitution’s Due Process clause. Rather, the court held that any financial incentives present were “too remote” under applicable precedent to constitute a due process violation. The Federal Circuit also rejected arguments based on an amicus brief from US Inventor (USI) purporting to show statistical evidence of this bias, arguments that RPX subsequently rebutted in its own analyses. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman also dissented in part as to both bias and constitutionality, arguing for the latter that institution decisions as presently structured may violate the Appointments Clause under the Supreme Court’s Arthrex decision.

Inventor-controlled Mobility Workx, LLC has filed a second suit in the campaign that it began this past August against Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile). The new complaint asserts the same two patents, broadly related to the allocation of resources in a wireless network, targeting the LTE network of Verizon (Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless) (4:17-cv-00872), including components identified in the relevant LTE standard: Evolved – Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network NodeB (“eNB”), Mobility Management Entity (“MME”), Serving Gateway (“S-GW”), and User Equipment (“UE”) components, with examples given of equipment made by Nokia and Samsung. Mobility Workx also asserts against Verizon a third patent, generally related to mobile network emulation to facilitate mobile device testing, targeting the company’s testing operations.

Inventor-controlled Mobility Workx, LLC has filed suit against Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (4:17-cv-00567), asserting two patents generally aimed at the allocation of resources in a wireless network. The NPE identifies the components that implement, collectively, T-Mobile’s LTE network, including components identified in the relevant LTE standard: Evolved – Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network NodeB (“eNB”) (with Nokia’s 9926 eNodeB given as an example), Mobility Management Entity (“MME”) (example given, Nokia’s 9471 Wireless Mobility Manager), Serving Gateway (“S-GW”) (Nokia’s 7750 Service Router), and User Equipment (“UE”) (Samsung’s Galaxy S8) components.