In June 2022, Torchlight Technologies LLC filed two Delaware lawsuits, accusing GM and Mercedes-Benz (f/k/a Daimler) and Volkswagen (with subsidiaries Audi and Porsche) of infringing a group of three lighting patents through the provision of vehicles with dynamic headlight systems. Torchlight pleaded that it is the exclusive licensee of the asserted patents, which appear still to be held by their sole named inventor, Yechezkal Evan Spero. This past week, District Judge Gregory B. Williams, after reviewing the disputed materials himself, ordered Torchlight to produce to the defendants full, unredacted versions of a schedule attached to the agreement assigning the patents to Torchlight and a term sheet between a patent advisory firm and a litigation funder dated before Torchlight itself was even formed. This ruling followed August orders canceling a Markman hearing planned for this month and extending a months-long stay in place to facilitate resolution of the threshold issue of Torchlight’s standing to sue.

Last week, RPX covered a potpourri of decisions from District Judge Gregory B. Williams since he took the Delaware bench in September 2022 after Judge Leonard P. Stark left to join the Federal Circuit. Among them was a minute order dispensing with a host of discovery issues in one of the cases from the automotive campaign of Torchlight Technologies LLC. Now that a redacted version of the underlying letter has been docketed, Judge Williams’s ruling with respect to discovery aimed at the relationship with a third-party litigation funder has come into somewhat sharper focus.

Last September, District Judge Gregory B. Williams took the federal Delaware bench, alongside Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly and Judges Richard G. Andrews and Maryellen Noreika, after Judge Leonard P. Stark left to join the Federal Circuit. Delaware has long been one of the busiest venues for patent litigation; it is therefore no surprise that six months into his tenure Judge Williams has now faced and resolved a good number of issues arising from the patent portion of his docket. In that time, with several trials on the horizon, he has issued multiple claim construction rulings; considered and resolved multiple Alice challenges; addressed discovery related to a third-party litigation funder; navigated, at least initially, a potential standing issue arising from the international source of patents that the plaintiff purportedly acquired through a receivership; and refused to enter a default judgment because the plaintiff’s pleading in the complaint “can charitably be described as sparse”, too sparse to establish infringement even upon default.

The litigation finance space saw fireworks in Q2, with Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly of the District of Delaware posting a pair of standing orders that heighten disclosure requirements in the second most popular district for patent litigation in the US—at least for cases assigned to Judge Connolly. While patent plaintiffs litigating in that courtroom are taking varied approaches to navigating (or, in some cases, avoiding) this evolving territory, RPX data and research indicate that the rate at which new third-party funded NPE campaigns are being initiated held steady in Q2.

Torchlight Technologies LLC has launched its inaugural campaign with suits against General Motors (1:22-cv-00752) and Mercedes-Benz (f/k/a Daimler) and Volkswagen (with subsidiaries Audi and Porsche) (1:22-cv-00751). The defendants are accused of infringing a group of three patents through the provision of vehicles with dynamic headlight systems. Filed in Delaware earlier this week, the complaints appear to tie the plaintiff to a funder associated with past litigation targeting the automotive industry.