The sole litigation campaign of Hyper Search LLC, an affiliate of IPValuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), remains in Alice limbo as a validity challenge brought by defendant Facebook continues to hang over the asserted patents. While briefing for Facebook’s Alice motion ended in January, both parties have repeatedly apprised the District of Delaware of subsequent authority—including the Federal Circuit’s Aatrix Software and Berkheimer decisions, as well as subsequent opinions citing them. Undeterred, Hyper Search has expanded the campaign, filing new Delaware lawsuits accusing Foursquare Labs (1:18-cv-01274) and Snap (1:18-cv-01273) of infringing the same patents through the operation of their respective websites. The patents-in-suit belong to the same family and generally relate to a system for home page creation, graphical search engines, and a system for controlling information output based on user feedback, respectively.

Among the patent assignments recorded during the first week of November were multiple transfers from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)—two to affiliates of IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) (which currently has multiple ongoing campaigns asserting former IV patents), and one to a new NPE with an apparent connection to Cotman IP. The week also saw the recording of transactions between IQ Holdings, LLC and IPVal; Panasonic and PanOptis Equity Holdings LLC; and Microsoft and General Patent Corporation.

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.

RPX noted, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the second half of September, patent transfers to affiliates of IP Valuation Partners LLC, Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, and IP Bridge, Inc. Other notable transactions involved a new NPE managed by Erich Spangenberg and NPEs with a possible connection to Bradley D. Liddle.

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.