SoundClear Technologies LLC has filed a second pair of Eastern District of Virginia complaints against Alphabet (Google) (3:24-cv-00540) and Amazon (Amazon Web Services) (1:24-cv-01283). Separate May 1, 2024 complaints target with three former JVCKenwood patents the provision of the defendants’ respective voice assistants and related hardware and software products. Three other such patents are asserted in the new complaints, which focus on the provision of a wide range of products: for Amazon, certain Echo, Fire, and Kindle-series devices and related products that support Alexa and the Alexa Voice Service (AVS); and for Google, certain Google Home, Nest, Nexus, and Pixel-series devices. Again at issue is voice recognition and processing, but also targeted are multi-touch gesture features.

Last month’s review of notable patent assignments considered the movement of assets from Avaya to Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC; from Level 3 Communications to Sandpiper CDN, LLC; from Seiko Epson to IPValue’s 138 East LCD Advancements Ltd. and Lumitek Display Technology Ltd.; from Transaction Security to a “BioCrypt Access”; from Fortress Investment Group LLC’s KIP Prod P1 LP to Prodea Automation LLC; from EMM Patents Ltd. to Empire IP LLC; from Siemens and Abdelsalam Helal to Rokiot USA LLC; and from Proxicom Wireless, LLC to Secure Communication Technologies, LLC. While a couple of these entities again feature prominently, this month’s review extends well beyond them to cover the movement of patents away from other operating companies, as well as within several repeat monetization players.

By now this general pattern has become familiar: the formation of an LLC in a state where a monetization outfit would like to file suit, the acquisition from an operating company of a patent portfolio over which the outfit would like to sue, the procurement of financial backing for the litigation, and ultimately, one or more complaints filed in US district court in that state over that portfolio with that funding. While some monetization teams are more open about such efforts, others seek to obscure their own identities as well as the identity of their funder. A recent assignment, and its parallels to others, raises questions about whether an unnamed team in the latter camp has been operating over the past year or so.

In separate Eastern District of Virginia complaints, SoundClear Technologies LLC has accused Alphabet (Google) (1:24-cv-00729) and Amazon (Amazon Web Services) (1:24-cv-00728) of infringing three patents originally developed at JVCKenwood. The Virginia plaintiff targets the provision of the defendants’ respective voice assistants and related hardware and software products. At issue are features related to noise reduction, speech detection/processing, and volume control.