RPX completed a number of acquisitions on behalf of its patent risk management network in January 2018, obtaining rights to the patents involved either to end litigation against its members or to prevent it in the first place. Acquisitions occurred within the Consumer Electronics and PCs market sector, as well as in the financial services space.

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.

The month of October has already seen multiple campaigns launched by IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) involving patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). During the first week of the month, IPVal’s Diversified Observation LLC sued HP (1:17-cv-01410), Konica Minolta (2:17-cv-00688), Panasonic (1:17-cv-01409) and Oki Data Electric (Oki Data Americas) (1:17-cv-01408) over a group of patents generally related to image scanning; at issue are image processing systems (HP), multi-function printers (Oki Data), and image information reading apparatuses (Konica Minolta and Panasonic). The NPE’s filings come on the heels of a lawsuit filed on October 3 by IPVal’s Hyper Search LLC, against Facebook, also asserting patents acquired from IV.

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.