Last Friday, an Eastern District of Texas jury returned a verdict that Headwater Research LLC failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Samsung infringed any of the four claims tried. Those claims are from a single patent, one of many asserted by Headwater against Samsung in multiple complaints filed since October 2022. Each of the US cases was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Headwater having also sued Samsung before the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Closing in on trial, Eastern District of Texas Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne has ruled on two motions in the earliest case filed by Headwater Research LLC against Samsung. The court has denied Samsung’s motion challenging Headwater’s standing based on obligations created by earlier employment agreements between two named inventors and Qualcomm. It has also ruled that Headwater and its counsel have “committed an egregious violation” of a discovery order in the case by failing to timely disclose to Samsung that certain source code exists (and where), source code relevant to Headwater’s copying claim in the case. The court has sanctioned Headwater by precluding the copying claim and shifting fees associated with bringing the sanctions motions. Meanwhile, Headwater has hit Samsung with yet another case (2:24-cv-00627), again in the Eastern District of Texas.

Last Thursday, Eastern District of Texas Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne heard arguments from plaintiff Headwater Research LLC and defendant Samsung concerning cross-motions for summary judgment regarding whether Headwater has standing to sue over the patents asserted in the case. Samsung contends that Qualcomm is at least a coowner of those asserted patents. The court also heard argument concerning Samsung’s motion to sanction Headwater for failure to preserve source code at the heart of the copying claims in the case. Jury selection is set for August 5, 2024 in this, the first suit in Headwater’s campaign, which has also seen complaints filed against wireless carriers AT&T (AT&T Mobility), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless), as well as against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility).

Headwater Research LLC filed its first of several cases against Samsung back in October 2022. Since Samsung filed an amended answer to plead three additional affirmative defenses (inequitable conduct and “infectious unenforceability”, lack of standing, and prosecution laches), disputes have been multiplying, including over more typical issues (e.g., amendment of infringement contentions, stay in light of inter partes review (IPR), propriety of certain expert opinions, etc.) but also over the release of US discovery for use in parallel proceedings in Germany, the production of clawed-back documents and any related waiver of privilege, the consideration of battery testing evidence, and—at the end of last week—a sealed request to sanction the plaintiff. Meanwhile, the Eastern District of Texas has handed down a claim construction order, and Headwater Research has filed yet another complaint against Samsung (2:24-cv-00228), bringing three more patents from the same large family into this fray.

After suing AT&T (AT&T Mobility), Deutsche Telekom (Sprint, T-Mobile), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless), as well as Lenovo (Motorola Mobility), Headwater Research LLC has returned to the first defendant in this campaign, hitting Samsung (2:23-cv-00641) with another complaint in the Eastern District of Texas. Four more mobile data management patents join the 14 from the same large family already in suit against Samsung, which just filed an amended answer in the first case in this campaign, pleading additional facts in support of its marking defense as well as adding three new affirmative defenses: inequitable conduct and “infectious unenforceability”; lack of standing; and prosecution laches.

Through two concurrently filed Eastern District of Texas complaints, Headwater Research LLC has accused AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (2:23-cv-00397, 2:23-cv-00398) of infringing the same four mobile data management patents that it asserted against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) in late July and against Deutsche Telekom (Sprint, T-Mobile) in late August. All these cases have been filed in the same district, targeting the provision of “electronic devices, including mobile phones and tablets . . . as well as cellular networks, servers, and services”. A couple of days earlier, Headwater also filed suit against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (4:23-cv-04496) in the Northern District of California, adding two more patents from the same family of over 200 to those litigated in this growing campaign.

In a pair of Eastern District of Texas complaints, Headwater Research LLC has accused Deutsche Telekom (Sprint, T-Mobile) (2:23-cv-00377, 2:23-cv-00379) of infringing four mobile data management patents through the provision of “mobile electronic devices, including mobile phones and tablets . . . as well as cellular networks, servers, and services”. The plaintiff asserted the same four patents in a single complaint, filed late last month in the same district, against Verizon (Verizon Wireless). Headwater pleads that it worked under a nondisclosure agreement with Samsung and Sprint, beginning in 2010, to implement its technology “to solve Sprint’s data demand problems”.

After suing Samsung three times, Headwater Research LLC has added a case against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:23-cv-00352), alleging infringement of three mobile data management patents through the provision of “mobile electronic devices, including mobile phones and tablets . . . as well as cellular networks, servers, and services”. The plaintiff pleads that notice reaches back to 2009, through an ultimately abandoned joint development effort that ended, in part, in a whistleblower complaint filed in New Jersey state court.

Headwater Research LLC has filed a third case against Samsung (2:23-cv-00103) in the Eastern District of Texas. Across its trio of suits, Headwater has now asserted a dozen members of an open family with over 200 issued US patents (and counterparts in multiple foreign countries). The new complaint also expands the set of products of accused of infringement, with Headwater here targeting “Samsung’s mobile electronic devices (e.g., Galaxy phones and tablets, as well as Samsung devices which include Samsung Knox functionality), and Samsung Tizen devices (e.g., TVs and wearables)” as to two of the three asserted patents and “Samsung’s push messaging servers (e.g., Samsung’s Knox and Tizen servers)”, as to the third. The prior two complaints focused on Samsung mobile phones and tablets.

Headwater Research LLC has brought the number of patents asserted against Samsung to nine. Three were asserted in an October 2022 original complaint, which was amended on November 30 to add two more. A second complaint (2:22-cv-00467), also filed in the Eastern District of Texas, has brought four more patents into the litigation between the parties. All name Greg Raleigh as an inventor, belonging to an open family with over 200 issued US patents (and counterparts in multiple foreign countries). Both cases against Samsung have been assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap.