VIAAS, Inc. has filed a second complaint against APT Group Holdings (Vivint Smart Home) (2:24-cv-00713), this one in the Eastern District of Texas. In April 2023, Western District of Texas Judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed without prejudice the first case—as well as parallel suits against each of ADT, Alphabet (Google), Amazon (Ring), APT Group Holdings (Vivint Smart Home), and Cisco—all over the same two patents asserted again here, for lack of standing, ruling that VIAAS failed to meet its burden to prove that it actually owned those patents. While refusing a request to impose sanctions in the earlier litigation, Judge Cardone did admonish counsel, William P. Ramey III (identified again on the new complaint, as colead counsel), “that he has a duty to conduct a diligent investigation prior to initiating any lawsuit, and that he may not knowingly persist with cases that he learns to be baseless”.

This past November, District of Colorado Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter ordered William P. Ramey III of Ramey LLP to show cause in writing “why he should not be referred to the Court’s Committee on Conduct for his neglectful behavior in this case, including his failure to appear at a scheduling conference and his failure to serve any discovery”. Ramey’s response was to address five specific pieces of information “relevant to the issues of whether Mr. Ramey and his firm are spread too thin to provide competent representation”. Ramey filed his response—the contents of which have pulled back the curtain on a broad patent monetization operation, including arguably improper legal work, numerous inaccurate certificates of interested parties, and third-party litigation funding lurking in the shadows.

VIAAS, Inc., a company spun out of Barracuda Networks in 2017, has filed five cases in the Western District of Texas, one against each of ADT (6:22-cv-cv-01046), Alphabet (Google) (6:22-cv-cv-01048), Amazon (Ring) (6:22-cv-cv-01041), APT Group Holdings (Vivint Smart Home) (6:22-cv-cv-01052), and Cisco (6:22-cv-cv-01047). The pair of asserted patents generally relate to using a camera to capture, store, and securely transmit “events of interest”, with the defendants targeted over the provision of smart home cameras and security systems.