The last couple of years have seen Texas monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC shift away from the acquisition of smaller families of patents from various sources toward the acquisition of large portfolios of assets—of former Kodak patents in March 2017, of former NEC patents in February 2018, and of former American Express patents in March 2018, all from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), as well as a large portfolio of assets acquired directly from Panasonic beginning in October 2018. Dominion (through subsidiaries of its litigation arm Monument Patent Holdings, LLC) has asserted patents from those large-portfolio acquisitions in litigation, and while it has continued litigating assets acquired prior to this strategy shift, that activity has dropped off. Assignment records recently made public by the USPTO suggest that, in addition, Dominion has begun to shed some of the smaller families that it had acquired under its earlier model.

Slack is the latest defendant to be added to Smart Authentication IP LLC’s (SAIP’s) file-and-settle litigation campaign. SAIP, a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, sued Slack on July 19, the same day that the NPE’s case against Autodesk was dismissed, apparently in light of a settlement. Slack is accused of infringing a patent (8,082,213) generally related to multifactor authentication of users using separate communication channels; the company’s two-factor authentication process that uses codes transmitted via text or an authentication app on a smartphone.

Smart Authentication IP, LLC (SAIP), a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has filed a case targeting the authentication used in financial planning software and apps of Personal Capital (1:17-cv-00941). The complaint asserts a single patent (8,082,213), which generally relates to multifactor authentication of users using separate communication channels. The new Eastern District of Texas suit follows dismissals in SAIP’s earlier waves of litigation there, apparently in light of the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision on patent venue.

Smart Authentication IP, LLC (SAIP), a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has added four defendants to the litigation campaign that it began last November, filing suit against Autodesk (2:17-cv-000277), CCP (2:17-cv-000280), Discover Financial Services (2:17-cv-000279), and Etsy (2:17-cv-000278). Each complaint asserts the sole patent at issue in the campaign (8,082,213), which generally relates to multifactor authentication of users using separate communication channels. The NPE targets the companies’ two-factor authentication processes that use codes transmitted via text, email, phone call, etc. These new filings come as the court considers a motion to dismiss an earlier case based on Alice.

Smart Authentication IP, LLC (SAIP), a recently formed NPE managed by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has launched a campaign asserting a user authentication patent (8,082,213). On November 4, SAIP sued Evernote (2:16-cv-01233), LogMeIn (2:16-cv-01234), and United Services Automobile Association (2:16-cv-01232), accusing the companies’ two-factor authentication processes of infringing the ‘213 patent. These suits trigger the start of a new litigation campaign—SAIP’s first and only to date. However, Monument NPEs have so far initiated seven campaigns in 2016, which together have resulted in over 50 patent infringement suits against operating companies.

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.