Following recent, apparent settlements with multiple defendants in the Eastern District of Texas as well as a ruling—and subsequent refiling—against HTC in that court, Motiva Patents, LLC has expanded its VR platforms campaign, begun in October 2018, with a single case filed against Acer, ASUSTek, HP, Lenovo Group, Microsoft, and Samsung (9:19-cv-00194) (also brought in the Eastern District of Texas). The asserted patents generally relate to providing a user with feedback based on a wireless device tracking that user’s movement, with the new suits targeting the defendants over the sale or provision of the HP Reverb (as to HP) and Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR platforms (as to all defendants).

Late last month, District Judge Rodney Gilstrap denied a motion, brought by defendant HTC, challenging, among other things, the specificity with which Motiva Patents, LLC pleaded the knowledge elements within its claims of indirect and willful infringement. Judge Gilstrap ruled that the plaintiff adequately pleads “willful blindness” in satisfaction of the knowledge requirements for inducement of infringement, contributory infringement, and willful infringement, all based on allegations in the complaint that HTC adopted a “policy or practice of not reviewing the patents of others” and “performed specific acts to implement and enforce” that policy: “Since Motiva has alleged that HTC has such a specific policy—a policy prohibiting review of patents—Motiva has plausibly alleged that HTC was willfully blind”. The late September ruling came just before a separate HTC motion challenging subject matter jurisdiction, prompting Motiva Patents to voluntarily dismiss the case last Sunday and triggering a race back to the courthouse, with the NPE refiling the next day in the Eastern District of Texas (9:19-cv-00181) and HTC filing a complaint seeking declaratory judgments of noninfringement from the Northern District of California (3:19-cv-06373).

Motiva Patents, LLC, an NPE formed in Texas earlier this year, has picked up the assertion of a family of patents from an Ohio entity controlled by their named inventors. The patents generally relate to providing a user feedback based on a wireless device tracking that user’s movement, with the new suits targeting virtual reality systems provided by Facebook (9:18-cv-00178) (Oculus Rift + Touch), HTC (9:18-cv-00179) (Vive, Vive Pro, and Vive BE), and Sony (9:18-cv-00180) (Playstation VR). Motiva Patents pleads current ownership of the patents-in-suit; their original assignee, Motiva LLC, litigated the earliest of them unsuccessfully against Nintendo in district court and before the International Trade Commission (ITC).