Through multiple August 2021 assignments, HANNIBAL IP LLC received 35 US patents, together with foreign counterparts, from FG Innovation Company Ltd. (f/k/a FG IP Innovation Company Ltd.) (FGI). It has now filed its first US suit over those assets, accusing Samsung (4:25-cv-00200) in an Eastern District of Texas complaint of infringing four of them. The asserted patents, broadly directed to wireless communications, are described as “essential to practicing the 3GPP 5G Standard”, with the provision of Galaxy-series smartphones that support that standard in the crosshairs. HANNIBAL IP, a Longhorn IP LLC plaintiff, pleads that the alleged infringement has been willful, indicating that it sent a notice letter to Samsung as early as June 2022.

On January 31, 2024, FG Innovation Company Ltd. (f/k/a FG IP Innovation Company Ltd.) (FGI) divested a portfolio of 35 assets, including 30 issued US patents, to a Texas entity, which moved the portfolio to a second Texas LLC the next day. This FGI divestiture is the sixth to an apparent US NPE since May 2021, to date four of the prior five recipients having launched litigation over the patents received.

Last month, 5G IP Holdings LLC—an NPE associated with monetization firm IPValuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal)—filed its first suit to date, hitting Samsung over wireless communications patents, received from FG Innovation Company Ltd. (f/k/a FG IP Innovation Company Ltd.) (FGI) and allegedly declared essential to the 5G standard. Now, USPTO records suggest that at least one more NPE may be in line to litigate former FGI patents—this time with Longhorn IP LLC at the helm.