Southern District of California Judge Todd W. Robinson has denied a request for $4.5M in attorney fees, as well as for nearly $450K in expert expenses, from Apple in the case filed against it by Taction Technology, Inc. Per Apple, after the court’s September 2022 claim construction order, continued litigation became untenable for Taction. Judge Robinson did not agree, however, that it became exceptional; per the court, “[c]onsidering the totality of the circumstances, this case was a heavily litigated but ultimately run-of-the-mill patent case”.

The prior good news for Taction Technology, Inc.’s litigation funders was that they skirted sanctions threatened by a California magistrate judge, but that upside was tempered by Southern District of California Judge Todd W. Robinson’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement, bringing the case against Apple to an end, at least for the moment. Now, however, Apple has filed a motion seeking $4.5M in attorney fees plus nearly $450K in expert expenses to cover the price tag of continuing to litigate the case beyond the court’s late September 2022 claim construction order, which, per Apple, contained a ruling that “gutted [Taction’s] infringement theory across every asserted claim”.

It appears that Taction Technology, Inc.’s litigation funders—i.e., Burford Capital and two special purpose vehicles associated with the litigation finance firm—have avoided sanctions threatened by a California magistrate judge, who last month queried whether the investors had violated their duty of candor to the court. However, the funders also appear less likely to see a return on their investment in Taction’s litigation against Apple, because this week, District Judge Todd W. Robinson of the Southern District of California granted Apple summary judgment of noninfringement.

This week there was a flurry of activity in Taction Technology, Inc.’s litigation against Apple, much of it centered around the plaintiff’s third-party litigation funding (TPLF), characterized as having been provided by two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) associated with the litigation finance firm Burford Capital. Among several recent orders issued by Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt of the Southern District of California, one in particular stands out in light of the continuing debate over TPLF-related discovery: an order to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed on the Burford SPVs for their potential violation of a duty of candor to the court.

In a new Southern District of California complaint, inventor-controlled Smith Interface Technologies, LLC accuses Apple (3:23-cv-01187) of infringing nine patents: five of them already in suit against Samsung and four of them new to litigation. The patents broadly concern touchscreens responsive to sequential gestures, with infringement allegations in the new complaint targeting the provision of “smartphones, portable media players, tablets, and smartwatches that run Apple iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS”, including certain models of “iPhone, iPhone SE, iPhone Pro, iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPod Touch, Apple Watch, and Apple Watch SE” for their inclusion of certain touchscreen gesture functionality.

In a new Southern District of California complaint, Taction Technology, Inc. has accused Apple (3:21-cv-00812) of infringing two patents—generally related to a device for “imparting motion on to the skin of a user” by delivering electrical currents to magnets enclosed in a housing—through the provision of certain Apple Watch and iPhone products that feature its Taptic Engine haptic implementation. The patents name S. James Biggs, Taction’s founder and CTO, as their sole inventor.