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Patent Armory Adds Nearly 20 Defendants to Its First Litigation Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Last week, Patent Armory Inc. filed another wave of litigation in a campaign that has focused, at least in significant part, on customer service systems that support routing/triage tools, suing Auntie Anne’s (2:24-cv-00232), Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop (2:24-cv-00236), and Charter Communications (2:24-cv-00237) in the Eastern District of Texas; Barclays (4:24-cv-01282) in the Southern District of Texas; BBDI (6:24-cv-00176), Chuy’s Holdings (6:24-cv-00178), Dell (6:24-cv-00180), Fiesta Restaurant Group (Texas Taco Cabana) (6:24-cv-00184), Fired Up (6:24-cv-00182), PayPal (6:24-cv-00183), UNUM (6:24-cv-00191), UnitedHealthCare Services (6:24-cv-00190), and Wells Fargo (6:24-cv-00192) in the Western District of Texas; Oscar Health (1:24-cv-02816) and Mastercard (1:24-cv-02815) in the Southern District of New York; TDM IP Holder (1:24-cv-00969) in the District of Colorado; Thrivent Investment Management (3:24-cv-00236) in the Western District of Wisconsin; and United Airlines (1:24-cv-02921) in the Northern District of Illinois. Similar to its most recent complaints, a majority of the new suits cite exhibits allegedly detailing accused products that are missing from their respective dockets.
April 11, 2024
Patent Armory, Fighting Earlier Motions to Dismiss, Continues Filing into April
New Patent Litigation
Patent Armory Inc. has sued Adidas (6:24-cv-00173) and American Express (6:24-cv-00174) in a campaign that has largely focused on certain routing/triage tools within the defendants' customer service systems—though this latest batch of complaints cites exhibits allegedly detailing the accused products that are missing from their respective dockets. Appearing in the pair of Western District of Texas complaints are the same five patents that Patent Armory has asserted against a long list of defendants, including, at least originally, Hertz. There, Hertz has filed three successive motions for judgment on the pleadings, among other things challenging the patents asserted against it as patent-ineligibly drawn, under Alice, to the abstract idea of “evaluating communications data to make a routing decision”.
April 5, 2024
Patent Armory’s Latest Complaints Focus on Audio Devices
New Patent Litigation
Surprisingly sole-owned Patent Armory Inc. has expanded its first litigation campaign with suits against VOXX (VOXX Electronics) (1:23-cv-01021) in the District of Delaware; Avantax (Monoprice)(6:23-cv-00687) in the Western District of Texas; and Kling & Freitag (2:23-cv-00428), Koninklijke Philips (2:23-cv-00430), and TCL (2:23-cv-00435) in the Eastern District of Texas. The sole patent-in-suit, among nine that have been asserted throughout the campaign, generally relates to a speaker system that can produce “localized regions of sound”. The defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of various audio devices, ranging from soundbars to subwoofers.
September 27, 2023
Patent Armory Misstates Ownership in Attempt to Comply with Judge Connolly’s Disclosure Orders
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Since May 2023, Patent Armory Inc. has filed more than 70 cases over various patents from multiple sources in federal district courts in both Delaware and Texas. As a formal matter, those suits comprise three litigation campaigns, one of which just began on August 31, 2023. Because they involve patents unrelated to those asserted in prior cases filed in Delaware, the suits that Patent Amory filed in that state—separately against 3Shape, Dental Imaging, and ScanTech—were subsequently assigned to Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly (instead of to District Judge Maryellen Noreika). Standing orders in force in his courtroom appeared to trigger a seemingly revealing corporate disclosure—but it now appears that this filing was made in error.
September 23, 2023
Patent Armory Keeps Filing
New Patent Litigation
Patent Armory Inc. has sued AMD (6:23-cv-00650) over the provision of its TrueAudio Next (TAN) solution. The plaintiff asserts a single patent generally related to “processing concurrent signals” in the new Western District of Texas complaint, filed on the day that Patent Armory’s case against Microsoft over the same patent was dismissed with prejudice. The only other defendant in Patent Armory’s rapidly expanding litigation to be accused of infringing this signal processing patent is NVIDIA. However, in the larger wing of this litigation, concerning customer service systems as well as speaker systems, Patent Armory added an Eastern District of Texas suit against American Airlines (2:23-cv-00407).
September 9, 2023
Patent Armory Hammers Customer Service Platforms
New Patent Litigation
Given the propensity of businesses to offer customer service through computerized platforms, it is perhaps no surprise that Patent Armory Inc.’s litigation campaign has spread so wide so fast. The plaintiff asserts a set of patents that includes some generally directed to customer service systems, focusing infringement allegations on tools within them for routing and triage. Earlier in August, Patent Armory hit Alphabet (Google), Avis Budget Group, Cruise America Travel, Enterprise Holdings, Hertz, Microsoft (LinkedIn), MBFG (Rent-A-Wreck of America), Penske (Penske Truck Leasing), Ryder System, Sixt Rent a Car, Sound United, U-Haul, and United Rentals, this past week adding additional complaints to its rapidly swelling litigation, one against each of AirBnB (6:23-cv-00590), Best Western (6:23-cv-00593), Choice Hotels (and its subsidiary Radisson Hospitality) (6:23-cv-00594, 6:23-cv-00604), Costco (6:23-cv-00595), Drury Hotels (6:23-cv-00596), Expedia (6:23-cv-00597), Extended Stay (6:23-cv-00603), Hilton Worldwide (6:23-cv-00600), Hyatt Hotels (6:23-cv-00602), Marriott International (6:23-cv-00603), Travelzoo (6:23-cv-00603), and Trip.com (6:23-cv-00606).
August 20, 2023
Patent Armory Has Another Week of Heavy Filing
New Patent Litigation
In just over three months, Patent Armory Inc. has sued more than 40 defendants in district courts in Delaware, New Jersey, or Texas. This past week, cases against Alphabet (Google) (6:23-cv-00575), Avis Budget Group (6:23-cv-00574), Cruise America Travel (1:23-cv-00853), Enterprise Holdings (6:23-cv-00582), Hertz (6:23-cv-00587), Microsoft (LinkedIn) (6:23-cv-00574), MBFG (Rent-A-Wreck of America) (2:23-cv-04377), Penske (Penske Truck Leasing) (6:23-cv-00583), Ryder System (6:23-cv-00584), Sixt Rent a Car (6:23-cv-00585), Sound United (2:23-cv-04379), U-Haul (6:23-cv-00588), and United Rentals (6:23-cv-00589) were filed across those districts. Patent Armory trains patents from disparate origins on the provision of certain audio devices, search engines, and/or customer service systems.
August 14, 2023
Patent Armory Defendants Piling Up
In Case You Missed It
This past week, rapid-fire plaintiff Patent Armory Inc. tagged Holoplot (1:23-cv-00825), K-Array (6:23-cv-00555), NVIDIA (6:23-cv-00547), Panasonic (6:23-cv-00556), Sennheiser (1:23-cv-00823), Sonos (1:23-cv-00823), Telegram (1:23-cv-00840), Tencent (1:23-cv-00841), and Yamaha (6:23-cv-00557). Over 30 defendants have now been sued—some in the District of Delaware, some in the Western District of Texas, others in the Eastern District of Texas, and one in the District of New Jersey—each accused of infringing overlapping subsets of ten patents of disparate subject matter through the provision of certain audio devices, search engines, and/or customer service systems. Early signs suggest that this litigation will unfold in file-and-dismiss fashion.
August 6, 2023
Patent Armory Ratchets Up Campaign on Multiple Fronts
New Patent Litigation
Last week, Patent Armory Inc. sued Booking Holdings (6:23-cv-00540), Creative Technology (6:23-cv-00543), Devialet (6:23-cv-00544), Guangzhou DSPPA Audio (6:23-cv-00545), Meta Platforms (6:23-cv-00541), Microsoft (6:23-cv-00542), and Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation (Hisense) (6:23-cv-00546) in the Western District of Texas; Pinterest (1:23-cv-00811), Quora (1:23-cv-00812), Reddit (1:23-cv-00813), Snap (1:23-cv-00814), and X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter) (1:23-cv-00815) in the District of Delaware; BOSS Audio (2:23-cv-03973) in the District of New Jersey; and Sony (2:23-cv-00350), in the Eastern District of Texas. These companies join Bang & Olufsen, Bose, LG Electronics (LGE), OnePlus, Pioneer (Pioneer Electronics (USA)), Samsung, Seek Thermal, and Teledyne Technologies (Teledyne FLIR) as defendants in this campaign over patents received from multiple, disparate sources.
July 29, 2023
Patent Armory Stockpiles Patents, Reworks (and Expands) Campaign
Patent Market, Patent Watch
This past May, Patent Armory Inc. began asserting the two patents that it had picked up in January from a trust associated with one of their named inventors, suing LG Electronics (LGE), OnePlus, Samsung, Seek Thermal, and Teledyne Technologies (Teledyne FLIR) in various districts. Around the time of those original complaints through the end of May, however, Patent Armory acquired roughly three dozen more patents, from disparate sources via four recorded transactions. That expanded portfolio has prompted a reconfiguration of Patent Armory’s prior suits, with multiple amended complaints introducing six of those subsequently acquired assets in litigation against existing defendants—and with three new cases filed just last week, one against each of Bang & Olufsen (6:23-cv-00508), Bose (2:23-cv-00335), and Pioneer (Pioneer Electronics (USA)) (1:23-cv-00781).
July 22, 2023