RPX data indicate that since 2016, NPEs have collectively launched over 80 separate litigation campaigns asserting patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). Meanwhile, the outflow of patents from IV persists, and divestments executed last year (primarily during the fourth quarter of 2019) continue to be recorded with the USPTO—many preceding the start of new NPE campaigns.

RPX completed a number of acquisitions in April 2019 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Networking; Media Content and Distribution.

Contemporary Display LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has added cases filed against Cox Communications (1:19-cv-00224) and Verizon (1:19-cv-00225) to the litigation campaign that it began last April. The NPE asserts two patents familiar to the campaign while debuting two in litigation for the first time, all of them acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in an August 2017 transfer of five families of disparate origins. Cox is alleged to infringe through the provision of certain DVRs (while an apparently misfiled document on PACER has made the exact allegations against Verizon unclear); the patents generally relate to an adapter for a video monitor, an on-screen system for managing the inputs to a television, and a device switching between “sessions”.

A late May assignment suggests that courts may soon see litigation filed by a plaintiff with connections to 2S Ventures, LLC—an “intellectual property accelerator” with apparent ties to several litigating NPEs. Meanwhile, former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) assets continue to spread among NPEs, with one assignee (a top filer in 2017) kicking off three new campaigns in April-May involving IV divestitures.

IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) has initiated a new litigation campaign, through affiliated plaintiff Contemporary Display LLC, filing suit against LG Electronics (LGE) (2:18-cv-00152) in the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint asserts three patents recently acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), one of them generally related to an on-screen system for managing the inputs to a television and the other two generally related to a similar system for displaying television programming schedules. LGE is accused of infringement through the provision of smart TVs with webOS, including the LG 49UJ6300, LG 55UJ6200, and the LG 49LJ550M televisions.