Omnislash Digital LLC, an entity with familiar connections in patent monetization, has moved separate batches of patents that it picked up from Allied Security Trust (AST) late last year to Haptic Synergy LLC and Modena Navigation LLC. The mid-October assignments suggest that litigation may be coming from each of the recipients, with Haptic Synergy’s new portfolio generally relating to touch sensitive displays; Modena Navigation’s, to tracking and displaying navigation information.

In July, Longhorn HD LLC expanded two of its three litigation campaigns, adding suits against Elitegroup Computer Systems (2:21-cv-00278), Onex (Celestica) (2:21-cv-00280), and Pegatron (2:21-cv-00279) to its earliest litigation campaign, as well as a single suit against Kyocera (2:21-cv-00277) to its latest litigation campaign. The plaintiff asserts seven patents—one against Kyocera and six in overlapping sets against the remaining defendants—each acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in several March 2018 assignments. Kyocera is alleged to infringe through the provision of smartphones that support Google’s device backup systems, while Celestica, Elitegroup, and Pegatron are accused over various devices (e.g., laptops, sensors, servers, storage devices, etc.), including those that incorporate hard disk drives (HDDs) manufactured by Western Digital (and/or its subsidiary Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST)).

Longhorn HD LLC has sued Atos (2:21-cv-00115), Best Buy (2:21-cv-00122), Broadcom (LSI) (2:21-cv-00114), Microchip (2:21-cv-00112), and Oracle (2:21-cv-00116), all in the Eastern District of Texas. The NPE asserts in overlapping sets seven patents that it received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in a March 2018 assignment. The NPE’s infringement allegations target the provision of various computing devices (e.g., computers, laptops, sensors, servers, storage devices, etc.), including those that incorporate hard disk drives (HDDs) manufactured by Western Digital (and/or its subsidiary Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST)). At issue are features related to damage protection, hard drive monitoring, mechanical actuators, and server mounting hardware.

In February 2020, Longhorn HD LLC voluntarily dismissed its case against Juniper Networks, one of two suits added to the NPE’s network security campaign in November 2019. The dismissal was without prejudice, and Longhorn HD has now refiled a complaint against Juniper Networks (2:19-cv-00099), asserting the same five patents, again in the Eastern District of Texas. A single petition for inter partes review (IPR), of just one of those five patents, has been filed over the life of this campaign, in which Check Point Software, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Sophos, and Trend Micro have come and gone as defendants while suits against Lanner Electronics, Mitel Networks, and NetScout Systems persist.

Longhorn HD LLC has added cases against Lanner Electronics (2:20-cv-00260), Palo Alto Networks (2:20-cv-00259), and Sophos (2:20-cv-00261) to the more recent of its two litigation campaigns. The NPE accuses each defendant of infringing the same three network security patents, acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), through the provision of “security gateways, routers, control system security appliance, clouds, and components and software that provide firewall, VPN, IPSec, DNS, IDS/IPS, and selective network address-based communication, mobile security, and threat protection”, targeting a wide variety of products.

Earlier this year, Longhorn HD LLC added Eastern District of Texas cases against Compal Electronics, Hon Hai, Inspur Group, and Micro-Star to its computer hardware campaign, this past week also suing NEC (2:20-cv-00148) and Panasonic (2:20-cv-00150) in the same district. The NPE alleges infringement, of overlapping subsets of patents acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), through the provision of various computing devices, targeting features related to hard drive monitoring, mechanical actuators, and damage protection as well as server mounting hardware.

“Elite Gaming Technology, LLC” (EGT) has launched a new litigation campaign over patents apparently acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), suing ASUSTek (2:20-cv-00059), Micro-Star International (MSI) (2:20-cv-00062), and Pegatron (ASRock) (2:20-cv-00060) in the Eastern District of Texas. The six patents asserted, of disparate origins, generally relate to computer hardware, with infringement allegations focused on long lists of computing devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.), some based on their inclusion of Intel chipsets or hard disk drives supplied by Western Digital (directly, or by Hitachi Global Storage, which Western Digital acquired in 2012). EGT pleads that it is a Texas LLC at an address that suggests that its name is actually Elite Gaming Tech LLC, an NPE of familiar management.

This year has seen the continued outflow of assets from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), including to NPEs, with IV at times retaining an economic interest in the assertion of its divestitures. Meanwhile, new NPE cases involving former IV assets continue to be filed in droves, and IV shows no signs of tightening up the spigot.

Since its January 2018 formation, Longhorn HD LLC has filed two litigation campaigns, both over patents formerly held by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), the plaintiff adding separate suits against Check Point Software Technologies (2:19-cv-00384) and Juniper Networks (2:19-cv-00385) to the second of those campaigns just this past week. The asserted patents generally relate to networking, including gateways, security, and virtual private networks, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of a wide variety of products, including “security gateways, routers, control system security appliance, clouds, and components and software that provide firewall, VPN, IPSec, DNS, IDS/IPS, and selective network address-based communication, mobile security, and threat protection”.

Longhorn HD LLC has added a suit against Huawei (2:19-cv-00212) to the computer hardware campaign that it began in May 2018. The NPE asserts against Huawei all seven patents-in-campaign, targeting a host of products, including devices featuring rack-mountable “blade” servers and “industrial personal computers” with “blind mateable” connectors, which are self-aligning connectors where the “mating” action happens when the entire device is slid into place; hard disk drives (HDDs) that include microactuators; laptops with fall sensors, including the Huawei MateBook X Pro, MateBook 14, and MateBook 13; servers that include hot-swappable ATA HDDs; and servers that include SMART-enabled HDDs.