Per prior RPX reporting, a consolidation of patent assets to Cloud Controls LLC earlier this year suggested a new monetization strategy. Now, Cloud Controls has indeed filed suit, accusing Samsung (2:24-cv-00925) of infringing five patents received through the provision of a wide array of products, including the Samsung Cloud platform, Samsung Galaxy-series smartphones, and Samsung Sound Tower-series speakers. At issue are features ranging from predictive keyboard tools to the Quick Share service.

Add to the list of portfolio pickups by the same Korean monetization firm, which already includes batches of US patents from SKhynix and SOLiD, a set of assets more recently acquired from Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN). Assignments recently made public by the USPTO also reveal bursts of activity from two monetization professionals, both suggesting possible strategy shifts going forward.

Varia Holdings LLC has filed its first litigation since 2012, accusing Apple (1:23-cv-07477) of infringing three patents through the implementation of RFID/NFC technology within the Apple Pay service and supporting devices (e.g., smartphones and smart watches). In the new complaint, filed in the Eastern District of New York, Varia Holdings pleads that its representatives met with Apple in March 2013 to “discuss Apple’s potential interest in utilizing Varia’s patented RFID/NFC technology”. Apple is alleged to have declined to license the technology because it “had no interest in using RFID technology and would not incorporate RFID/NFC technology into any of its products”.

Another plaintiff appears poised to litigate mobile device patents originally developed years ago at Wildseed Ltd., a “venture-funded mobile technology startup” acquired by AOL a decade before its own acquisition by Verizon. A November 2021 transfer of three such patents joins a half dozen patents moved into the hands of Wildseed Mobile LLC this past August. If the new owner does sue, it will join several other recent plaintiffs that, according to public records, have received funding from the same third party.