TMI Solutions LLC, an affiliate of Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC (SIS), has targeted a second group of retailers in its cookies campaign, after the two patents-in-suit—generally related to client-server communications—survived an Alice challenge in the first round. The NPE has tagged Barnes & Noble (1:19-cv-01229), CVS (1:19-cv-01230), Etsy (1:19-cv-01231), H&M (1:19-cv-01232), Hobby Lobby (1:19-cv-01233), Home Depot (1:19-cv-01234), Mary Kay (1:19-cv-01235), and OfficeMax (1:19-cv-01236) in the District of Delaware, where last September, District Judge Leonard P. Stark ruled, citing Berkheimer, that while the asserted patents’ claims are directed to an abstract idea (“exchanging information for the purpose of identification”), the first-round defendants failed to persuade the court, at least at the Rule 12 stage, that the claim limitations are “well-understood, routine, and conventional computer technology at the time of the invention”.

Of note among the assignment records published by the USPTO during the second half of July were multiple NPE-to-NPE transactions involving patents that have been previously asserted in litigation. Also in late July, a confirmatory assignment involving patents currently being litigated by Intellectual Ventures LLC was recorded, and CG Technology, LLC completed an uncharacteristic patent acquisition.

Two patents (9,484,077; 9,484,078) generally related to client-server communications have been asserted in a new campaign hitting Bath & Body Works Direct (1:17-cv-00965) and Victoria’s Secret (1:17-cv-00969), both apparently owned by L Brands, as well as Nordstrom (1:17-cv-00967), Staples (1:17-cv-00968), and The Gap (1:17-cv-00966). The plaintiff, TMI Solutions LLC, accuses the retail defendants of infringement through the use of cookies associated with their websites.