Recorded patent assignments recently made public reveal patents on the move, to an NPE that appears to be collecting assets from a familiar source as prior litigated patents run into PTAB trouble; to an entity managed by what appears to be a relatively new monetization operation standing up; to a recent entrant into the litigation funding space; to entities associated with a frequent plaintiff-side law firm in Texas; and to a host of other plaintiffs recently filing suit.

Recently recorded patent assignments made public by the USPTO contain noteworthy transfers to multiple plaintiffs now in litigation, including a new source of patents for Apex Beam Technologies LLC, a new source of patents for Pantech Corporation, and a familiar source of patent rights for Crystal Leap Zrt, this time assigning patents directly, though. Movement can also be seen from troubled patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, as well as movement from various sources to patent broker Allied Security Trust. Take a look.

It is rare for an entity associated with IP Edge LLC to record with the USPTO the assignment of patents to a recipient not also tied to that Texas monetization firm. In early 2022, only a single such divestiture was recorded, from the IP Edge-linked LLC that had asserted the two patents in short-lived litigation against just one defendant. The two patents there, however, went to a third-party operating company after that case ended. The outbound transaction that just popped up in publicly available USPTO assignment records this year, however, delivered three patents, previously litigated by an IP Edge-linked LLC as well, not to a third-party operating company, nor to another entity in the IP Edge family, but back to their original source.

Launchip LLC, yet another entity apparently associated with Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has initiated a new litigation campaign over a set of patents previously litigated by Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.). The patents generally relate to a multicolored lamp assembly, with infringement allegations in the NPE’s new complaints targeting Ace Hardware (1:19-cv-01172), Home Depot (1:19-cv-01171), Lowe’s (1:19-cv-01170), Target (1:19-cv-01167), and True Value (1:19-cv-01165) over their provision of twinkling and/or multicolored seasonal LED light kits.