During March 2017, RPX completed 14 deals on behalf of its patent risk management network, obtaining rights to the patents involved either to end litigation against its members or to prevent it in the first place. March acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Automotive, Consumer Electronics and PCs, Media Content and Distribution, Mobile Communications and Devices, Networking, and Semiconductors.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board saw the filing of petitions against a host of publicly traded NPEs in February, including Acacia Research Corporation, Pendrell Corporation, Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation), with challenges also filed in campaigns waged by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV); IP Bridge, Inc.; Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited; and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC.

The transfer of multiple patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) on October 28, 2016 to various subsidiaries of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC formed the bulk of recorded assignments seen by RPX during the first half of December. A first of those subs (Preferential Networks IP, LLC) has already asserted one of the patents that it received in litigation, while the other two (Equalizer IP, LLC and Wireless Switch IP, LLC) have yet to file suit. Monument recently recorded the assignment of two e-commerce patents to its Landmark Networks, LLC subsidiary, which also just filed suit, as have NPEs Interactive ToyBox, LLC and Vesper Technology Research, LLC, both of which likewise recorded the assignment of patents asserted in early December.

Vesper Technology Research, LLC, a Texas-based NPE formed by patent attorney Stephen McArthur, has filed its first litigation, targeting ATEN (2:16-cv-01245), Atlona (2:16-cv-01236), Harman (AMX) (2:16-cv-01257), LG Display and LG Electronics (LGE) (2:16-cv-01259), Pioneer (2:16-cv-01248), Samsung (2:16-cv-01246), and Sharp (2:16-cv-01247) over a single patent (6,611,247) related to a timing controller that encodes and transmits image data to a receiver, which then decodes the data and shows it on a display panel. AMX, ATEN, and Atlona are accused of infringement through the provision of various types of video switcher hardware that transmit data to a display panel, with Pioneer alleged to infringe through video receivers. Meanwhile, Samsung and Sharp are accused of infringement for making and selling displays used for digital signage, and both displays and receivers are at issue in the case against LG Display and LGE. The accused products purportedly infringe by receiving and/or displaying multi-level signal data.

Texas NPE Forward Thinking Tracking LLC has kicked off its first litigation campaign with a series of lawsuits filed over the last week targeting the real time location systems and asset tracking products of multiple defendants. The new complaints hit AeroScout (with alleged partners and distributors Extronics, Exloc Instruments, IoEworx, Stanley Black & Decker, and Vizzia Technologies) (2:16-cv-01172), AiRISTA Flow (with the alleged former owner of the accused system, Ekahau) (2:16-cv-01141), CenTrak (with Vizzia) (2:16-cv-01125), Elpas (with Sensormatic Electronics d/b/a Tyco Security Products) (2:16-cv-01143), RF Code (2:16-cv-01168), Savi Technology (2:16-cv-01169), TeleTracking Technologies (2:16-cv-01173), Vestac (2:16-cv-01174), and Zebra Technologies (ZIH) (2:16-cv-01175). Each complaint asserts a single patent (6,989,741) generally related to object tracking.

Texas NPE Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, LLC (MOVI) has continued to expand its new digital rights management (DRM) campaign, filing five new lawsuits against Dell, F5 Networks, and SAP (2:16-cv-01066); First Data (2:16-cv-01062); Hitachi (2:16-cv-01055); Koninklijke Philips (2:16-cv-01061); and Symantec (2:16-cv-01056). MOVI first began filing litigation last week and has asserted various combinations of nine patents from a group of over fifteen patents that the NPE acquired from Rovi Corporation in July, prior to that company’s name change to TiVo Corporation. Others hit by MOVI’s initial wave of filings include Arista (2:16-cv-01042), ARRIS (2:16-cv-01045), Barracuda Networks (2:16-cv-01038), Cisco (2:16-cv-01040), Fujitsu (2:16-cv-01046), and SAP (also sued in the same complaint as Fujitsu). All seven new defendants have been accused of infringement through products related to enterprise networking, as in previous complaints, while First Data is also alleged to infringe through its payment terminals, Koninklijke Philips through the provision of smart TVs, and Symantec through its disk imaging software.