Millennium Commerce, LLC has continued its move from suing retailers (TGI Friday’s and Whole Foods) for their use of point-of-sale (POS) terminals to directly targeting manufacturers of those devices (First Data). Its newest case is against Ingenico (2:17-cv-00250), identifying the iCT 250 and iWL 222 and 252 terminals as accused products. The sole patent-in-campaign (7,954,701) generally relates to a point-of-sale terminal that processes “cash back” transactions. This campaign is one of many to have been filed by subsidiaries of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, which is affiliated with monetization firm Dominion Harbor Group, LLC.

Unlike the other two cases in its campaign, accusing retailers TGI Friday’s and Whole Foods Market of infringement through their use of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, the new suit (2:17-cv-00083) brought by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC subsidiary Millennium Commerce, LLC directly targets one manufacturer of such terminals, Clover Network. The NPE’s new complaint accuses Clover, and its parent First Data, of infringing the sole patent-in-campaign (7,954,701), which generally relates to a point-of-sale terminal that processes “cash back” transactions, through the manufacture and sale of its various terminals, including Clover Mini, Clover Station, and Clover Mobile.

During the second half of October 2016, RPX took note of eight patent transfers to NPEs. Assignees included two NPEs controlled by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC; a new NPE managed by IP Valuation Partners LLC; and an NPE with apparent ties to Nicolas J. Labbit. Several of the transacted patents have been asserted in litigation filed over the past month.

The first of the ten or so Texas NPEs formed by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC since mid-August has now filed litigation, asserting a single patent (7,954,701) in two suits, one filed against each of TGI Friday’s (2:16-cv-01119) and Whole Foods Market (2:16-cv-01120). The plaintiff, Millennium Commerce, LLC, pleads ownership of the ‘701 patent, although no assignment to the NPE has been recorded with the USPTO. One member of a somewhat famous family, the ‘701 patent generally relates to a point-of-sale terminal that processes “cash back” transactions, and the accused products are the defendants’ transaction terminals.