Bama Gaming LLC, a subsidiary that Equitable IP Corporation apparently took the trouble to name so as to suggest a connection to Alabama, has now moved the campaign that it began in the Southern District of that state to Delaware in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision. The NPE voluntarily dismissed its April 2017 cases, paring down the named defendants in their Delaware analogs to Activision Blizzard (Activision Publishing, Infinity Ward) (1:17-cv-00764) and Harmonix-SBE Holdings (Harmonix Music Systems) (1:17-cv-00767). The same five patents (5,728,960; 6,084,168; 7,074,999; 7,098,392; 7,612,278) asserted in each Alabama complaint are again at issue against Activision, while only the ‘999, ‘392, and ‘278 patents are now at issue against Harmonix. The patents generally relate to the visual presentation of musical compositions (e.g. digital music stands). The first complaint targets Guitar Hero; the second, Rock Band. The five patents-in-suit belong to a family of 13, with the two earliest, the ‘960 and ‘168 patents, previously asserted in litigation by their sole named inventor, David H. Sitrick.

International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA) has filed suit against ADTRAN (1:17-cv-00562), its third complaint brought this month after cases against Ericsson (1:17-cv-00507) and NTT (1:17-cv-00508). The NPE’s latest lawsuit accuses ADTRAN of infringing six former Nortel patents (5,959,990; 6,970,461; 7,274,704; 7,277,533; 7,478,167; RE40,999), two of which (the ‘704 and 533 patents) are here asserted for the first time. The company is alleged to infringe through the provision of various Ethernet switches, routers, and gateways; IP phones; and line cards; as well as through certain cloud management services. Meanwhile, ILEA dismissed its case against Ericsson without prejudice on May 11; that complaint accused the company infringing the ‘990 and ‘999 patents through various types of enterprise networking hardware.

Bama Gaming LLC, an apparent affiliate of Equitable IP Corporation formed in Alabama, has initiated a gaming campaign with two lawsuits, one against Activision Blizzard (Budcat Creations, Infinity Ward, Neversoft Entertainment, Vicarious Visions) and Ubisoft (Ubisoft Learnington (f/k/a FreeStyleGames, sued under its old name)) (1:17-cv-00182) and another against Harmonix-SBE Holdings (Harmonix Music Systems), Mad Catz, and Performance Designed Products (1:17-cv-00182). The five patents (5,728,960; 6,084,168; 7,074,999; 7,098,392; 7,612,278) asserted in each new complaint generally relate to the visual presentation of musical compositions (e.g. digital music stands). The first complaint targets Guitar Hero; the second, Rock Band. The five patents-in-suit belong to a family of 13, with the two earliest, the ‘960 and ‘168 patents, previously asserted in litigation by their sole named inventor.