Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap has granted a request by L2 Mobile Technologies LLC, a Longhorn IP LLC plaintiff, to file a new complaint against OnePlus (2:23-cv-00087) under seal, a redacted version of that pleading appearing on the docket several days later. The public version reveals some parallels with a sealed complaint that L2 Mobile filed in Delaware against TCL (TCT Mobile) last fall: the assertion of three allegedly standard essential patents (although not the same three patents) together with requests for declaratory judgments that L2 Mobile complied with its commitment to offer a license under fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms and that the defendant “has acted in bad faith, is an unwilling licensee, has breached its obligation to negotiate in a FRAND manner, and has forfeited and exhausted any and all rights as a third-party beneficiary under a FRAND contract and to a FRAND license”.

Delaware District Judge Richard G. Andrews has granted a motion by plaintiff L2 Mobile Technologies LLC to file its latest complaint (and associated exhibits) under seal. The defendant is TCL (TCT Mobile) (1:22-cv-01306), with L2 Mobile contending that the complaint contains information falling under a May 2019 confidentiality agreement between the parties, as it allegedly discloses information related to negotiations over a potential patent license and specific terms from that potential license. Three wireless communications patents are at issue in the case, including patents that L2 Mobile has alleged to be essential to the practice of the 3G standard.

PanOptis Patent Management, LLC; Optis Cellular Technology, LLC; Unwired Planet, LLC; and Unwired Planet International Limited (collectively, PanOptis) have sued Ford (2:22-cv-00133) in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting a group of former Ericsson or Panasonic patents and targeting connected vehicles alleged to communicate according to the 4G/LTE cellular network standard. PanOptis appears to be the latest to join a line of Avanci, LLC licensors taking aim at Ford.

L2 Mobile Technologies LLC, an entity under the control of NPE Longhorn IP LLC, has filed a second lawsuit in its sole litigation campaign, accusing Ford (1:21-cv-01409) of infringement through the provision of automobiles and devices that are complaint with the 3G and/or 4G wireless communication standards. The five patents-in-suit, two of which are new to litigation, are broadly directed to wireless communications; in its complaint, L2 Mobile alleges that ASUSTek and/or Innovative Sonic Limited “declared before [the European Telecommunications Standards Institute] ETSI the Patents in Suit as essential to the 3G wireless communications standard”.

L2 Mobile Technologies LLC, an entity under the control of NPE Longhorn IP LLC, has filed suit against Alphabet (Google) (6:21-cv-00358) in the Western District of Texas, accusing Google of infringing three patents through the provision of smartphones “that comply with the 3G and/or with both the 3G and 4G wireless communications standard”. L2 Mobile picked the patents up in January 2017, pleading in its new complaint that ASUSTek “declared before [the European Telecommunications Standards Institute] ETSI the Patents in Suit as essential to the 3G wireless communications standard”.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first half of June, of patent transfers to a number of frequent plaintiffs in patent litigation, including Blackbird Tech LLC; IP Valuation Partners LLC; and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC. Assignees also included Intellectual Ventures LLC, Longhorn IP LLC, and several NPEs associated with California attorney Daniel Cotman. Dongbu HiTek and Sharp were among the assignors.