Hermes IP Management LLC has become the latest entity tied to Texas monetization firm Longhorn IP LLC to file US litigation. In a new Eastern District of Texas complaint, Hermes IP has accused Samsung (2:24-cv-00540) of infringing three former SK Telecom patents through the provision of mobile devices featuring audio noise cancellation, multiple home screens, and/or image geotagging and navigation features. Longhorn IP has made headlines recently for its appeal to the Federal Circuit of the requirement that it post a bond under Idaho’s “Bad-Faith Patent Assertion” law, in litigation against Micron.

Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap has granted a request by L2 Mobile Technologies LLC, a Longhorn IP LLC plaintiff, to file a new complaint against OnePlus (2:23-cv-00087) under seal, a redacted version of that pleading appearing on the docket several days later. The public version reveals some parallels with a sealed complaint that L2 Mobile filed in Delaware against TCL (TCT Mobile) last fall: the assertion of three allegedly standard essential patents (although not the same three patents) together with requests for declaratory judgments that L2 Mobile complied with its commitment to offer a license under fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms and that the defendant “has acted in bad faith, is an unwilling licensee, has breached its obligation to negotiate in a FRAND manner, and has forfeited and exhausted any and all rights as a third-party beneficiary under a FRAND contract and to a FRAND license”.

Delaware District Judge Richard G. Andrews has granted a motion by plaintiff L2 Mobile Technologies LLC to file its latest complaint (and associated exhibits) under seal. The defendant is TCL (TCT Mobile) (1:22-cv-01306), with L2 Mobile contending that the complaint contains information falling under a May 2019 confidentiality agreement between the parties, as it allegedly discloses information related to negotiations over a potential patent license and specific terms from that potential license. Three wireless communications patents are at issue in the case, including patents that L2 Mobile has alleged to be essential to the practice of the 3G standard.

SK hynix (3:22-cv-03915) has filed a single Northern District of California action against monetization firm Longhorn IP LLC and two of its “portfolio” entities, Hamilcar Barca IP LLC and Trenchant Blade Technologies LLC, seeking declaratory judgments of noninfringement of seven patents. The plaintiff alleges receipt of multiple letters from the plaintiffs, beginning in May 2020, giving rise to jurisdiction over the dispute, by which SK hynix seeks to clear a wide array of products, including image sensors, integrated circuit devices, and memory products, from the Longhorn IP accusations of infringement. This litigation was foreshadowed, at least in part, by a letter attached to an earlier DJ complaint against Longhorn IP, revealing its “intent to license the patent portfolio [of Trenchant] to other companies, including Samsung, Micron, SK hynix, Global Foundries, UMC and SMIC”.

Earlier this month, the case that Katana Silicon Technologies LLC filed against Western Digital in April of last year settled in the middle of claim construction. Now, the Longhorn IP LLC plaintiff has sued Globalfoundries (6:22-cv-00191) over two of the seven patents asserted since this campaign began back in May 2019. Infringement allegations in the latest complaint target the provision of integrated circuit devices that are made using its 12nm node LP FinFET, 14nm node LPP FinFet, and 12nm node LP+ FinFET processes (with the AMD RADEON RX 480 graphics card identified as an exemplary product), as well as the Globalfoundries 32nm controller (which is allegedly found in the Micron MT43A4G40200NFA-S15 ES A HMC integrated circuit, among others).