Last year, Light Guide Innovations LLC filed separate complaints against first TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) and then Hisense, both in the Eastern District of Texas, targeting the provision of LED strips used for television or other display backlighting. Each defendant has yet to answer (or otherwise respond). Now, Light Guide has sued Walmart (2:25-cv-00312) in the same district, asserting 16 patents from the same former Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) portfolio. The plaintiff targets the provision of VIZIO Quantum, Quantum Pro, 4k, Full HD, HD, M-Series, V-Series, and D-Series televisions. VIZIO is not named as a defendant.

Little has happened on the docket of the Eastern District of Texas case that Light Guide Innovations LLC filed against TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) last August, other than most recently an extension of the deadline to answer that complaint to April 10, 2025. Now, the plaintiff has filed a second complaint in the same district, this time hitting Hisense (2:25-cv-00051) over 16 patents from the same former Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) portfolio. The accused products are televisions and displays that include certain LED backlight units or LED strips.

The third quarter of 2024 saw multiple funded NPEs launch new patent campaigns, with several funded plaintiffs also filing new cases in existing litigation campaigns. In addition, towards the end of the quarter, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas awarded a large verdict to a plaintiff funded by a prominent litigation finance firm.

As RPX recently noted, on June 25, 2024, Suzhou Lekin Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (d/b/a LEKIN) transferred 27 US patents to Light Guide Innovations LLC, which has now accused TCL (TCT Mobile and multiple subsidiaries) (2:24-cv-00646) of infringing 14 of its received assets, described by the plaintiff as covering “systems and methods related to LED lighting and image enhancement for televisions and displays”. Targeting the provision of displays and TVs that incorporate LED, QLED, and QD-MINI LED lighting technologies, Light Guide has backing from a prominent litigation funder.

Three transfers of US patents recently recorded with the USPTO and made public—one from an optoelectronics company to an entity in a growing family of funded plaintiffs, one from an individual inventor who ended a litigation campaign last September, and one of former NEC assets passing through a Singaporean entity to a potential Delaware plaintiff—all bear watching over the coming months.