On October 5, the same day that Weatherproof Wireless, LLC filed a motion for voluntary dismissal of its June case against Digi International, the subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC filed two new suits, against Itron (1:17-cv-03920) and Silver Spring Networks (1:17-cv-01395). The patent-in-suit generally relates to a wireless router with weatherproof housing, including an antenna, a mounting bracket, and a “wire harness” for electrical connection. Weatherproof Wireless accuses the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of “access gateway and wireless router pods”, naming the Itron CCU 100 and the Silver Spring Networks Access Points.

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.

Weatherproof Wireless, LLC has asserted the networking equipment patent (7,522,876) that it acquired in April. The ‘876 patent generally relates to a wireless router with weatherproof housing, including an antenna, a mounting bracket, and a “wire harness” for electrical connection. Weatherproof Wireless, a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has accused Digi International (1:17-cv-00785) of infringement through the manufacture and sale of its Digi Utility Communication Hub with 4G LTE. With this suit, June marks the fifth consecutive month to see a new litigation campaign by a Monument subsidiary.

Roughly ten days after the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision on patent venue, Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, through the plaintiff, its subsidiary Visual Effect Innovations, LLC (VEI), and sole defendant NVIDIA filed a joint stipulation to transfer the case between them from the Eastern District of Texas to the Northern District of California. In January 2017, NVIDIA sought to a change of venue for convenience to the Northern District, explicitly reserving in its motion the right to contest the propriety of venue in Texas under any eventual TC Heartland decision. NVIDIA is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Santa Clara. The court has signed the joint stipulation, and the case has been transferred, formally under the provision of the venue statutes related to convenience transfers, to a new number (3:17-cv-03187) in the Northern District of California.