Proximity Sensors of Texas LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has filed new cases in its campaign over a single patent generally related to an apparatus on an object’s surface that emits light and receives back reflected light. The NPE accuses AMS (AMS-TAOS USA) (4:19-cv-00026) in the Eastern District of Texas and ROHM (ROHM Semiconductor USA) (1:19-cv-00208) in the Northern District of Illinois of direct infringement, calling out their AMS tmd2771/ tmd277x and ROHM rpr0521 sensors, respectively, further alleging indirect infringement through the provision of products (e.g., smartphones and tablets) that include such sensors. In prior cases in the campaign, Proximity Sensors named smartphone and tablet makers themselves—Apple, Huawei, Microsoft, and ZTE—as defendants.

RPX completed a number of acquisitions on behalf of its patent risk management network in March 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 E-Commerce and Software, Semiconductors, and Consumer Electronics and PCs market sectors.

Proximity Sensors of Texas LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has added a fourth defendant to the campaign that it began last October. The NPE sued Apple (6:18-cv-00041) over the same patent, generally related to an apparatus on an object’s surface that emits light and receives back reflected light, that it asserted in the earlier complaints, filed against Huawei, Microsoft, and ZTE. At issue throughout the campaign are the defendants’ smartphones that include proximity sensors, used, for example, to turn off the touchscreen when the phone is close enough to a user’s ear. Now two IPVal affiliates have begun litigating patents from a portfolio of lens technology portfolio received from a Korean monetization firm in October 2017.

RPX noted among the assignment records released by the USPTO during the second week of October transfers to affiliates of IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) and IP Bridge, Inc. Also during the week, a late September assignment between two NPEs controlled by patent attorney Brian Yates was recorded, as well as a 2016 transfer to Unwired Planet International Ltd.

Proximity Sensors of Texas LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has initiated a new litigation campaign, filing separate suits against Huawei (6:17-cv-00575), Microsoft (6:17-cv-00573), and ZTE (6:17-cv-00574). The patent asserted is generally related to an apparatus on an object’s surface that emits light and receives back reflected light. The new complaints target the defendants’ smartphones that include proximity sensors, used, for example, to turn off the touchscreen when the phone is close enough to a user’s ear. The complaints name Huawei’s Honor 6X, Mate 9, and Nexus 6P phones, together with proximity sensors allegedly provided by AMS, Lite-On Semiconductor, or TXC; various models of Microsoft’s Lumia phones, together with an Avago proximity sensor; and a long list of ZTE phones, together with AMS, Lite-On, or Rohm sensors.