Last week, RPX raised the possibility of IP Edge LLC’s practices—specifically, the naming of Texas residents with seemingly no discernible connections to patent monetization as managers or managing members of most of its LLCs—sliding under the judicial microscope. On September 12, District of Delaware Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly ordered a handful of such individuals to appear, in person, at evidentiary hearings to determine whether a group of apparent IP Edge plaintiffs has complied with his standing order regarding the disclosure of any third-party litigation funding. A similar order has been issued in multiple cases associated with Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP), Judge Connolly setting an October hearing to determine the accuracy of those plaintiffs’ amended corporate disclosure statements. Perhaps unsurprisingly, voluntary dismissals have been noticed across these cases, ending the court’s jurisdiction over the matters.

Per recently released USPTO assignment records, the number of sources for 2021 acquisitions by IP Edge LLC tipped past a dozen. In July of last year, the Texas monetization firm picked up a group of search results patents from Vortaloptics, which have yet to appear in litigation. If (more likely when) they do, they will join litigated assets that IP Edge acquired just last year from a dozen other sources—sources that include operating companies, former operating companies, universities, research institutions, individual inventors, patent licensing companies, and fellow NPEs.