Last year, Light Guide Innovations LLC filed separate complaints against first TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) and then Hisense, both in the Eastern District of Texas, targeting the provision of LED strips used for television or other display backlighting. Each defendant has yet to answer (or otherwise respond). Now, Light Guide has sued Walmart (2:25-cv-00312) in the same district, asserting 16 patents from the same former Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) portfolio. The plaintiff targets the provision of VIZIO Quantum, Quantum Pro, 4k, Full HD, HD, M-Series, V-Series, and D-Series televisions. VIZIO is not named as a defendant.

Ascale Technologies LLC, an Anjay Venture Partners LLC plaintiff, has filed its first litigation, suing Texas Instruments (TI) (2:25-cv-00243) in the Eastern District of Texas over the provision of “integrated circuits including a processor” including display controllers, DSPs, microcontrollers, PMICs, processors, and “wireless connectivity chips”. The three asserted patents are part of a larger portfolio that RPX recently reported that Ascale Technologies had received from NXP USA, a subsidiary of NXP Semiconductors, on December 28, 2024.

Recorded patent assignments recently made public reveal a new Texas entity operated by a familiar and funded monetization team picking up a semiconductor portfolio; a networking entity previously backed by Fortress Investment Group LLC moving a traffic management portfolio onto the market; an IoT provider transferring all of its US patent assets during a “controlled recapitalization”; a Texas entity tied to an now-established operation topping off a prior acquisition, here with a video communications patent and a network collaboration patent; and the continued Delaware-to-Texas flow of patents by a named inventor awaiting the lift of a Northern District of California stay, that lift increasingly likely given a long list of inter partes reviews (IPRs) and ex parte reexaminations (EPR) seeming to draw to an end.

Little has happened on the docket of the Eastern District of Texas case that Light Guide Innovations LLC filed against TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) last August, other than most recently an extension of the deadline to answer that complaint to April 10, 2025. Now, the plaintiff has filed a second complaint in the same district, this time hitting Hisense (2:25-cv-00051) over 16 patents from the same former Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) portfolio. The accused products are televisions and displays that include certain LED backlight units or LED strips.

Recorded assignments recently made public by the USPTO reveal batches of US patents, one generally related to multi-display devices and another to drug delivery devices, on the move, to entities tied to experienced monetization teams—teams that have apparently secured the backing of the same prominent litigation funder. One of those entities is already in litigation, over previously received patents from the same source, while the other appears headed in that direction.

The same day that the February 2024 case that Avant Location Technologies LLC filed against Samsung was dismissed with prejudice, after a noticed settlement, the plaintiff filed a new complaint against Apple (2:24-cv-00757), asserting the same seven patents. Per Avant, “the Accused Products are Apple products that implement Find My, which include, but are not limited to, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple Watch, Mac, AirPods, AirTag, Apple Pencil, and Apple Vision Pro”. Litigation remains active against the other two defendants in this campaign: Generac (ecobee), which has yet to respond to a July 2023 complaint; and Fibar Group, which filed an answer on August 28, 2024.

Funded plaintiff Active Wireless Technologies LLC has filed a second pair of Eastern District of Texas suits, one against each of Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:24-cv-00723) and Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:24-cv-00724). In the ongoing litigation, in which Ericsson and Nokia have intervened, Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap denied as premature motions to stay in light of inter partes review (IPR) of the asserted patents—the PTAB has yet to return institution decisions in response to the petitions filed. All the patents here in suit were received from FG Innovation Company Ltd. (f/k/a FG IP Innovation Company Ltd.) (FGI).

Advanced Coding Technologies LLC (ACT) has filed a second suit against Apple (2:24-cv-00687), in which it asserts three patents that it added to its case against Alphabet (Google) through an early August amended complaint. Now in suit against both defendants are the same six patents, which overlap with subsets of a larger portfolio received from JVCKenwood, subsets asserted in cases against Bytedance, LG Electronics (LGE) and Samsung. Still active, the case against Samsung is closing in on trial, although Samsung has just notified Eastern District of Texas Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap that its renewed motion to stay the suit to await appeals from various inter partes reviews (IPRs) is now fully briefed.

As RPX recently noted, on June 25, 2024, Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) transferred 27 US patents to Light Guide Innovations LLC, which has now accused TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) (2:24-cv-00646) of infringing 14 of its received assets, described by the plaintiff as covering “systems and methods related to LED lighting and image enhancement for televisions and displays”. Targeting the provision of displays and TVs that incorporate LED, QLED, and QD-MINI LED lighting technologies, Light Guide has backing from a prominent litigation funder.

In a new Eastern District of Texas complaint, Advanced Coding Technologies LLC (ACT) has accused Apple (2:24-cv-00572) of infringing the same three data coding patents asserted against Alphabet (Google) in a May 2024 complaint in the same district. The three patents, received as part of a larger set received from JVCKenwood in February 2022, are a subset of those asserted in the other active case in this campaign; ACT and Samsung are currently briefing dispositive and other pretrial motions before Eastern District of Texas Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap.