Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has litigated one of the largest litigation campaigns ever, having sued over 330 defendants since May 2019. More than 50 patents, of disparate subject matter but all received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), have been asserted against companies in various industries, with a concentration around products and services that involve image processing, in complaints filed in a wide variety of federal districts. The campaign has been conducted in file-and-dismiss fashion, with most cases ending relatively quickly, but one of several international defendants for which service of process has been a challenge has recently filed a document that reveals the amount of a Cedar Lane “settlement proposal”, while one of the few remaining domestic defendants has filed a motion to dismiss raising questions about whether the NPE actually owns the patents that it asserts.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has filed separate suits late in October against Adesso, Autel Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Brinc Drones, Imperx, Motorola Solutions, Ricoh, Security Camera Warehouse, STMicro, Teal Drones, Turning Video, Vantage Robotics, Video Network Security, Watts Innovations, and YI Technologies. That storm of complaints follows earlier October filings against BIO-KEY, iFlight Technology (DJI), Konica Minolta, Leica Camera, Luminator Technology Group, MediaTek, Parrot, PixArt Imaging, Qisda (BenQ), Renesas Electronics, Shuhair RaySharp Technology, Sigma, Socionext, Vantage Integrated Security Solutions, Wonwoo Engineering, Zicom Technology, and ZKTeco. The number of defendants in this “jumbo” litigation has now soared above 300—but it still has a hill to climb, despite this rage of new complaints, to move up, from third, on the list of largest NPE campaigns ever.

At its recent annual conference, RPX observed that a large portion of the peak NPE activity observed in 2010 through 2015 was due to “jumbo” litigation campaigns targeting dozens of defendants. For example, nearly one-fourth of all defendants added to NPE campaigns in 2011 were sued in a campaign that saw more than 30 defendants hit that year. Such campaigns are now rare—but not nonexistent. This past week, the only such “jumbo” campaign to launch since 2015 jumped into third place on the list of largest NPE campaigns ever, the seven companies sued (Aver Information, Dynacolor, Dynacom Communications, Fuho Technology, GeoVision, and Logipix) bringing the total number of campaign defendants just shy of 250.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has filed another round of cases in its long-running litigation over former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) patents, suing 3xLOGIC, Carrier Global, CBC America, Firstech, and VOXX in the District of Delaware; Infineon Technologies (Cypress Semiconductor), and NXP Semiconductors in the Western District of Texas; Logitech and Phytec America in the Western District of Washington; Navitar in the Western District of New York; ThorLabs in the District of New Jersey; and TI in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff asserts four patents in overlapping sets, with the defendants accused of infringement through a wide variety of products including cameras, interface devices, multimedia processor units, and more. Since launching this, its first litigation campaign, in May 2019, Cedar Lane has sued over 200 defendants and asserted a total of 51 patents.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has filed another round of cases in its long-running litigation over former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) patents, suing HP (6:22-cv-00040), TI (6:22-cv-00047), Thorlabs (6:22-cv-00053), Qualcomm (6:22-cv-00046), and Verizon (6:22-cv-00043) in the Western District of Texas; Lenovo (1:22-cv-00051), Lionsgate (Epix) (1:22-cv-00050), Phytec (1:22-cv-00054), and Snap (1:22-cv-00058) in the District of Delaware; and L.S. Starrett (1:22-cv-00149) in the Northern District of Georgia. The 13 patents-in-suit are among over 50 assets (received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)) that the plaintiff has asserted against over 185 defendants since May 2019; the defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of a wide array of products, including cameras, smartphones, tablets, scanners, processors, and more.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has hit 2022 ground running with five new suits filed in its longest running litigation campaign. So far this month, the NPE has sued Excelitas Technologies (1:22-cv-00011), Illunis (1:22-cv-00012), MGM (1:22-cv-00014), and Novantas (1:22-cv-00016) in the District of Delaware and Generac (Ecobee) (6:22-cv-00018) in the Western District of Texas. The plaintiff asserts three patents in overlapping sets, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of a wide variety of products, including barcode scanners and cameras. Since launching this, its first litigation campaign, in May 2019, Cedar Lane has sued over 175 defendants and asserted a total of 50 patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)).

Basler (2:21-cv-05160), Walmart (6:21-cv-01234), WideOpenWest (1:21-cv-03154), and Wyze Labs (1:21-cv-01704) are the latest defendants to be added to the first litigation campaign of Cedar Lane Technologies Inc., launched in May 2019 with a suit against Advert Tech. The plaintiff asserts six patents in overlapping sets, one of which is newly asserted in litigation, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of a wide variety of products, including cameras and streaming products. At issue are a variety of features, ranging from image processing to the support of the Google Assistant platform. Over 150 defendants have now been sued in this campaign, while the number of asserted patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)) nears 50.

September 2021 has so far seen Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. add another 13 defendants to its first litigation campaign, suing Ametek, GoPro, and TKH Technologie Deutschland (Allied Vision Technologies) in the District of Delaware; Arashi Vision, Basler, Hasselblad, JVC Kenwood, Resideo Technologies, Seiko (Seiko Epson), and Thales (Thales E-Security) in the Western District of Texas; Funai Electric (Funai) in the Northern District of Georgia; LT Security in the Southern District of Texas; and Twin Point Capital (Frontpoint Security) in the Eastern District of Virginia. The plaintiff asserts five patents in overlapping sets, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of a wide variety of products, including cameras, document readers, and facial recognition software. Since launching its first litigation campaign in May 2019, Cedar Lane has now sued over 140 defendants and asserted nearly 50 patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)).

Arlo Technologies (1:21-cv-01206), Brother (1:21-cv-01207), and Philips (1:21-cv-01208) are the latest defendants to be added to the first litigation campaign of Cedar Lane Technologies Inc., launched in May 2019 with a suit against Advert Tech. The plaintiff asserts nine patents in overlapping sets, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of security cameras, scanners, and voice remotes and smart TVs, respectively. At issue are a wide variety of features, ranging from image autocropping to the support of the Google Assistant platform. Over 130 defendants have now been sued in this campaign, while the number of asserted patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)) nears 50.

In April, Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. passed 100 defendants sued in its first litigation campaign, which it launched in May 2019, after filing new suits against Avision (6:21-cv-00415), Bang & Olufsen (6:21-cv-00429), Broadlink (6:21-cv-00433), Hisense (6:21-cv-00436), Gosund (6:21-cv-00443), Hitachi (Hitachi Kokusai Electric) (6:21-cv-00423), HTC (6:21-cv-00420), Pantum (6:21-cv-00424), Skyworth Group (6:21-cv-00437), SONOFF (6:21-cv-00449), TCL (6:21-cv-00408), and Trip.com (6:21-cv-00426) in the Western District of Texas and Haier (1:21-cv-00528) and Whirlpool (1:21-cv-00529) in the District of Delaware. The plaintiff asserts 13 patents in overlapping sets, one of which is new to litigation; the defendants are accused of infringement through a wide variety of products and services: devices and systems that support the Amazon Echo and Google Assistant platforms, web platforms that feature interactive graphical maps, and various other devices (e.g., camera systems, multi-function peripherals (MFPs), smartphones, TVs, VR headsets, wireless printers and scanners, etc.). Roughly 120 defendants have now been sued in this campaign, while the number of asserted patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)) is approaching 50.