Ford (2:23-cv-11462) and Seiko (Epson America) (2:23-cv-00307) are the latest defendants to be added to the sole litigation campaign of VDPP LLC, launched in August 2019 with suits against Acer and Meta Platforms (f/k/a Facebook) and expanding to hit over a dozen defendants since. The four patents-in-suit, asserted in overlapping sets, are broadly directed to modifying video content using the Pulfrich effect. Ford is accused of infringement through the provision of automobiles incorporating the Ford Surround View tool, while Epson is targeted over projectors that incorporate the Epson 3-chip 3LCD technology. At issue is Epson’s resolution scaling system and Ford’s “parking guidelines” tool. 

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.

Video image processing patents asserted by a plaintiff associated with monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC through January 2019 have now been returned both to their named inventors and to litigation. VDPP LLC, an entity that those named inventors formed in Oregon, has filed suit in the Northern District of California over certain assets from the returned portfolio, accusing Acer (3:19-cv-04571) and Facebook (3:19-cv-04597) of infringement through the use of certain image processing features within a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and virtual reality headsets. In the new campaign, the plaintiff discloses Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP) as a nonparty having an interest in the outcome of the proceeding, at least the third NPE to do so this year.

With its new case against LG Electronics (LGE) (1:18-cv-00687), Visual Effect Innovations, LLC (VEI), an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC, has now filed second suits against all three defendants named last September: Samsung, Sony, and now LGE. All three new complaints assert two recently issued members of the single family of 24 patents at issue in the campaign, generally related to various video image processing techniques. The defendants are accused of infringement through the manufacture and sale of certain televisions and monitors.

In January of this year, Visual Effect Innovations, LLC’s (VEI’s) December 2016 case against NVIDIA ended in settlement, leaving active in the campaign three September 2017 cases, one each filed against LG Electronics (LGE), Sony, and Samsung. VEI has now added a second case against Sony (1:18-cv-00675) in the District of Delaware, and a second case against Samsung (2:18-cv-00184) in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff targets image processing techniques allegedly used in the defendants’ televisions (e.g., 4K upscaling, motion blur reduction, local dimming, etc.), asserting against Sony one patent originally at issue in (but recently dropped from) cases against both LGE and NVIDIA, and asserting against both Samsung and Sony two patents new to the campaign entirely.

Various image processing techniques allegedly performed in certain televisions made and sold by Samsung (2:17-cv-00645) have been targeted in the latest complaint filed by Visual Effect Innovations, LLC (VEI), a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC. The two patents asserted in the new complaint are already at issue in the campaign, which began in December 2016 with a case against NVIDIA and saw suits against LG Electronics and Sony added earlier this month. Televisions, monitors, and laser projectors are the focus of these latter complaints, with NVIDIA’s 3D glasses with “independent lens control”, as well as a variety of NVIDIA graphics cards used to display 3D video games, targeted in the first case.

Visual Effect Innovations, LLC (VEI), a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has filed cases against LG Electronics (LGE) (1:17-cv-01275) and Sony (1:17-cv-01276) in the campaign that it began last December with a suit against NVIDIA. VEI’s original complaint against NVIDIA asserted two patents, generally related to 3D filters, against NVIDIA’s 3D glasses with “independent lens control”, but in July, the NPE filed an amended complaint in that case, adding two video image processing patents and accompanying, new infringement allegations against a variety of NVIDIA graphics cards used to display 3D video games, among other things. These latest complaints add to the campaign a fifth patent, issued by the USPTO in July, from the same 21-member family, with the set of accused products now sweeping in televisions, monitors, and laser projectors.

Since the US Supreme Court issued its decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, RPX has seen an upswing in venue-related filings by both plaintiffs and defendants—with indications that some NPEs may be throwing in the towel on Texas, while others are seemingly digging in. Defendants have also begun to adapt their defensive strategies, asserting more comprehensive interpretations of the patent venue statute and proactively maintaining their right to bring venue challenges down the road.

Roughly ten days after the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision on patent venue, Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, through the plaintiff, its subsidiary Visual Effect Innovations, LLC (VEI), and sole defendant NVIDIA filed a joint stipulation to transfer the case between them from the Eastern District of Texas to the Northern District of California. In January 2017, NVIDIA sought to a change of venue for convenience to the Northern District, explicitly reserving in its motion the right to contest the propriety of venue in Texas under any eventual TC Heartland decision. NVIDIA is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Santa Clara. The court has signed the joint stipulation, and the case has been transferred, formally under the provision of the venue statutes related to convenience transfers, to a new number (3:17-cv-03187) in the Northern District of California.

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.