In a new Eastern District of Texas complaint, coplaintiffs Malikie Innovations Limited (as “the successor-in-interest to a substantial patent portfolio created and procured over many years by [BlackBerry]”) and Key Patent Innovations Limited (KPI, as “the beneficiary of a trust pursuant to which Malikie owns, holds, and asserts the Asserted Patents”) have accused Sophos (2:24-cv-00905) of infringing seven of those former BlackBerry patents. Five of them are new to this campaign, which has now seen complaints filed against Acer, ASUSTek, D-Link, Nintendo, and Sophos, in that order, since March of this year. All cases remain “active”, although a stay has been imposed to facilitate a resolution in the D-Link case, and ASUSTek, the Taiwanese parent company, has mounted a novel challenge to venue in the Eastern District of Texas.

Malikie Innovations Limited (as “the successor-in-interest to a substantial patent portfolio created and procured over many years by Blackberry”) and Key Patent Innovations Limited (KPI, as “the beneficiary of a trust pursuant to which Malikie owns, holds, and asserts the Asserted Patents”) have together sued Nintendo (2:24-cv-01490) in the Western District of Washington over the provision of various models of the Nintendo Switch gaming console, its dock and charger, and its parental control system. This additional case in Malikie’s campaign drops as prior defendant Acer has answered an amended complaint that added KPI as a party to that case, prior defendant ASUSTek has contested venue in the Eastern District of Texas, and a notice of settlement appears likely to end litigation against D-Link.

Last summer, the assignment of thousands of patent assets from BlackBerry to Malikie Innovations Limited, a subsidiary of Irish patent monetization firm Key Patent Innovations Limited (KPI), reflected the May 2023 completion of the deal between the two, described as involving the sale of “substantially all of [BlackBerry’s] non-core patents and patent applications”. Now, Malikie has filed suit, accusing Acer (2:24-cv-00179) and ASUSTek (2:24-cv-00178) in separate Eastern District of Texas complaints of infringing overlapping subsets of its received assets through the provision of features such as video coding, gesture-based touch controls, and power management within various devices, including Chromebooks, docks, laptops, and tablets.

A telephonic conference held this week shed light on the status of Tech+IP Advisory’s litigation against BlackBerry, which earlier this year divested its legacy patent portfolio to Malikie Innovations Limited in a transaction for which Tech+IP claims credit—and wants payment. Meanwhile, having handed off those patents and wound down its smartphone business, BlackBerry announced earlier this month that it intends to separate—and take public—its Internet of Things (IoT) business unit.

BlackBerry’s divestment of substantially all of its non-core patents assets to Malikie Innovations Limited may be in the rearview, the transaction having closed in May of this year, but the deal continues to spark new litigation: first from Catapult IP Innovations, Inc., which failed to complete its earlier attempt to buy the BlackBerry portfolio; and more recently, from Tech+IP Advisory, which was hired to facilitate BlackBerry’s patent sale.

USPTO records recently made public confirm the assignment of thousands of patent assets from BlackBerry to Malikie Innovations Limited, a subsidiary of Irish patent monetization firm Key Patent Innovations Limited. The transfers reflect the early May completion of the deal between the two, described as involving the sale of “substantially all of its non-core patents and patent applications” to Malikie. The transfers surface after York Eggleston’s Catapult IP Innovations Inc. voluntarily dismissed the Eastern District of Virginia case that it had filed in early June seeking to unwind the May transaction with Malikie.

In early May, BlackBerry completed the sale of “substantially all of its non-core patents and patent applications” to Malikie Innovations Limited—a subsidiary of Irish patent monetization firm Key Patent Innovations Limited—for $200M in upfront and guaranteed payments, plus a profit-sharing agreement. The transaction closed roughly 16 months after BlackBerry announced a tentative agreement to sell the same portfolio to York Eggleston’s Catapult IP Innovations Inc.—which is now seeking to compel Malikie to participate in an arbitration against BlackBerry to unwind last month’s transaction.

On March 21, BlackBerry announced that it had reached an agreement to sell most of its patent portfolio to Malikie Innovations Limited—a subsidiary of Irish patent monetization firm Key Patent Innovations Limited—for $200M in upfront and guaranteed payments, plus a profit sharing agreement. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals, but the Malikie deal is fully financed. This news comes thirteen months after BlackBerry announced a tentative agreement to sell the portfolio to Catapult IP Innovations Inc.