In a new District of Delaware suit, Ortiz & Associates Consulting, LLC (OAC) has accused Panasonic (1:19-cv-01921) of infringing a single “multimedia” mobile device patent from a family of 30-plus members, targeting the mirroring features of the company’s Viera-series televisions. OAC asserted the same patent, together with others from the same family, in an August 2018 case in the same district against Roku, which responded with a quick motion to dismiss under Alice. Delaware District Judge Maryellen Noreika teed that motion up for argument on June 14, 2019—just five days short of the five-year anniversary of the Alice decision itself—in an omnibus hearing that addressed five Section 101 motions filed in cases before her, the others filed by OpenPrint LLC, Sandboxed Software, LLC (d/b/a Sandbox Software, LLC), TrackTime LLC, and EncodiTech LLC. Judge Noreika’s treatment of these motions on a “Section 101 Day” tracks the procedure already used in Delaware a couple of times this year by District Judge Leonard P. Stark. OAC is now suing Panasonic, begging the question: how did that Roku motion fare? More broadly, four months later, how did Judge Noreika’s “Alice day” affect the progress of those other NPE campaigns?

RPX completed a number of acquisitions on behalf of its patent risk management network in January 2018, obtaining rights to the patents involved either to end litigation against its members or to prevent it in the first place. Acquisitions occurred within the Consumer Electronics and PCs market sector, as well as in the financial services space.

Earlier this year, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) signaled a move away from the purchase of additional patents, instead refocusing on the monetization of existing assets. A review of IV’s patent assignments over the last 12 months confirms that shift, as do IV’s recent litigation activities, which include an automotive campaign begun in March (its first new campaign since 2015). While there has been much speculation about the effect that IV’s decision to stop buying patents may have on the patent marketplace, just as interesting is what will come of its patent divestitures. RPX has observed the transfer of patent portfolios from IV to multiple other NPEs over the past year, including four of the top ten filers (by defendant count) in 2017: IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal); Leigh M. Rothschild; Monument Patent Holdings, LLC; and Equitable IP Corporation. Each has initiated its own litigation campaigns asserting patents acquired from IV, beginning with Equitable IP back in October 2016, and including three launched by IPVal during the first half of this October alone.

Hyper Search LLC, the formation of which RPX first reported in July, has begun filing litigation. The NPE (an affiliate of IPValuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal)) sued Facebook (1:17-cv-01387) on October 3, accusing the company’s website of infringing three patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in early July. IPVal has now launched 14 litigation campaigns so far in 2017, two involving patents acquired from IV.

OpenPrint LLC, an NPE managed by Jason Bourgeois, one of the principals of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (IPVal), has kicked off a litigation campaign, suing HP (1:17-cv-01077), OKI Electric Industry (OKI Data) (1:17-cv-01075), and Panasonic (1:17-cv-01076). The defendants are accused of infringing either three (HP) or six (OKI, Panasonic) patents that OpenPrint received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in a March assignment that RPX noted in May.

RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first half of May, of the transfer of patents to frequent plaintiffs Leigh M. Rothschild and IP Valuation Partners (both of which received patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC) and BlackBird Tech LLC. RPX also took note of transfers of patents from multiple assignors to an NPE controlled by patent attorney Brian Yates—a California attorney revealed, by a January sanctions ruling in Texas, as controlling more entities than previously thought. Also among the noted transactions are outbound assignments by Panasonic, Pantech, and ZTE, and a transfer from Allied Security Trust’s Industry Patent Purchase Program involving former IBM and Nokia patents.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the latter half of April, of the transfer of patents to a number of frequent plaintiffs in patent litigation, including BlackBird Tech LLC; Intellectual Ventures LLC; IP Valuation Partners LLC; Unwired Planet International Limited, and Wi-LAN Inc. Assignors included Cypress Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, ROY-G-BIV, Samsung, and Sharp.