Buffalo Patents, LLC has sued Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (1:22-cv-04540) in a second Northern District of Illinois complaint, this time targeting the provision of mobile devices that support features related to handwriting and speech recognition via the Google Gboard virtual keyboard app. The asserted patents, received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in a portfolio of over 60 US patents in June 2021, generally relate to a system for generating text from speech or handwriting input.

District Judge Alan D. Albright has reiterated that delivery of a complaint to the Texas Secretary of State does not effect service on a Chinese defendant because the Secretary is required by statute to forward the process via mail and China has objected to the portion of the Hague Service Convention that permits service by mail. The court further denied a request by the plaintiff, Buffalo Patents, LLC, for alternative service because it had “not attempted to follow the service of process procedures in the Hague Service Convention, but rather asks this Court to permit plaintiffs to sidestep those procedures from the outset”. On these bases, Judge Albright granted ZTE’s motion to dismiss, prompting Buffalo Patents to refile its case five days later even as it filed a notice of appeal of the court’s dismissal.

Buffalo Patents, LLC has hit OnePlus (6:22-cv-00421), TCL (6:22-cv-00422), and ZTE (6:22-cv-00423) with a second Western District of Texas complaint apiece. The NPE accuses each of infringing a patent added to the litigation campaign in a February 2022 complaint filed against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) in the Northern District of Illinois and introduces two patents new to the litigation. All stem from the portfolio that Buffalo Patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) through four June 2021 assignments, involving over 60 US patents. Litigation against the other two defendants in the campaign, Coolpad (Yulong Computer) and HTC, has ended, for different reasons.

Buffalo Patents, LLC has expanded its sole litigation campaign, begun in October 2021, with a suit against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (1:22-cv-00621) in the Northern District of Illinois. The five asserted patents, acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in June 2021, are broadly directed to either wireless communications or a certain display device. The defendant is accused of infringement through the provision smartphones that support Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) or Wi-Fi calling, as well as smartphones that incorporate a curved and/or flexible OLED display.

The recipient of nearly 100 US patent assets from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) this past June, Buffalo Patents, LLC has begun litigation, suing BBK Electronics (OnePlus) (6:21-cv-01063), Coolpad (Yulong Computer) (6:21-cv-01061), HTC (6:21-cv-01062), TCL Communication (6:21-cv-01064), and ZTE (6:21-cv-01065) in the Western District of Texas. Asserted are four patents described by the plaintiff as “generally relate[d] to internet and wireless network telephony”, with infringement allegations targeting the defendants over their respective alleged provision of smartphones that support Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) or Wi-Fi calling.

Recent months have seen yet more NPEs file litigation over patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), including Elite Gaming Tech LLC (d/b/a Elite Gaming Technology, LLC), which this past week fired off a dozen new suits asserting former IV patents. Meanwhile, USPTO records indicate that IV continues to assign patents to NPEs, including to at least one new entrant into the monetization business—and may be preparing for additional divestments in the near future.

USPTO records reflect multiple recent assignments from affiliates of Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) to a Texas NPE formed by apparent newcomers to the patent monetization business. The transacted portfolios collectively comprise nearly 100 US patent assets, including patents developed by BellSouth, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, or UMC, among others.