Commercial Copy Innovations Inc. (CCI), a subsidiary of Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.) has added Brother International, Lexmark, and Xerox to its campaign targeting various printer and ink products. CCI’s latest complaints assert two (6,197,466; 6,453,127) out of the four (6,773,102; 6,848,777) patents it asserted against Ricoh and Mimaki (8:17-cv-00437) in March of this year. The patents-in-campaign generally relate to various printing techniques, including methods and materials used for printing on challenging surfaces, termed “non-absorbing substrates” (the ‘102 and ‘777 patents); the use of toners treated with metal oxides (the ‘466 patent); and remote printing (the ‘127 patent). All four patents-in-campaign were acquired from Eastman Kodak.

RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the second half of March 2017, of the transfer of hundreds of patents to two Wi-LAN Inc. subsidiaries, one of which has not yet filed suit. Also noted are assignments of patents to Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, to Intellectual Ventures LLC, and to Xperi Corporation, among others.

Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) subsidiary Commercial Copy Innovations Inc. (CCI) has now asserted four (6,197,466; 6,453,127; 6,773,102; 6,848,777) of the dozen former Eastman Kodak patents that it received in assignments executed in November and December 2016. The patents generally relate to various printing techniques, including methods and materials used for printing on challenging surfaces, termed “non-absorbing substrates” (the ‘102 and ‘777 patents); the use of toners treated with metal oxides (the ‘466 patent); and remote printing (the ‘127 patent). CCI has accused Ricoh and Mimaki (8:17-cv-00437) of infringement, in a single complaint, through the manufacture and sale of various printer and ink products.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the latter part of February, of the transfer of patents from operating companies Dongbu, Eastman Kodak, Honeywell, IBM, and Koninklijke Philips to various NPEs. One of those NPEs (Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited) has already launched a campaign asserting the patents that it received (from IBM). RPX also saw during this time the recordation of the assignment of one two-way radio patent from one litigating NPE to another (the second, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC) and the assignment of two database management patents from a Daniel F. Perez entity that asserted them in litigation back to the Georgia patent monetization firm from which that NPE acquired them.