In the latter half of November, RPX saw recorded patent assignments to three NPEs that had already begun litigating the patents changing hands: Serenitiva LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, recorded receipt of a single patent with a colorful ownership history from Allied Security Trust; Robert A. Westerlund’s Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC recorded receipt of a single patent invalidated under Alice just days ago; and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology recorded receipt of the patent that it has just asserted in its first ever US litigation. RPX also took note of two transfers to NPEs of patents not yet related to any litigation: Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc. recorded receipt of over 20 patents from Panasonic, while Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. recorded receipt of just two patents from Pantech. Finally, RPX saw two litigating NPEs each record receipt of another batch of patents from familiar hands, Mantis Messaging, Inc. from Post SMS Global Co. Inc. (f/k/a Mobile Messenger) and DiamondOp, LLC from United Module Corporation.

KAIST IP US LLC, a Texas entity formed in July 2016 apparently to assert at least one patent (6,885,055), has filed suit against Global Foundries, Samsung, and Qualcomm (2:16-cv-01314) in an effort to do just that. The ‘055 patent generally relates to the fabrication of certain double-gate FinFET devices. The new complaint alleges that the “pioneering” work of named inventor Jong-Ho Lee, IEEE fellow and now a “vice dean” of the College of Engineering and a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Seoul National University, allowed improved performance and lower consumption in a smaller area as compared to the more traditional use of purely planar transistors. The accused products are the defendants’ chips made using Samsung’s 14 nm FinFET process, as well as products (e.g. Samsung’s Galaxy mobile devices) that incorporate them.