Roughly one week after suing Apple, Broadcom, and Qualcomm in a Western District of Texas complaint and Lenovo (Motorola Mobile Communications), OnePlus, and TSMC in an Eastern District of Texas complaint, IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue) subsidiaries Longitude Licensing Limited and Marlin Semiconductor Limited (f/k/a Sandyford Semiconductor Limited) have filed a complaint before the International Trade Commission (ITC) (337-TA-3809), naming those six defendants as proposed respondents. At issue are the same five semiconductor fabrication patents, with the defendants targeted over non-x86 semiconductor devices (defined as devices “other than those which are made by or for” AMD and Intel), including semiconductor wafers or semiconductor dies manufactured outside the United States using TSMC’s 7 nm and smaller process nodes, as well as products containing such semiconductor devices—including circuit boards, integrated circuits, “network units”, personal computers, smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets.

In a Central District of California complaint, IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue) and “intellectual property and technology licensing company” Longitude Flash Memory Solutions Ltd. (LFMS) have sued Western Digital (8:25-cv-00119) over the provision of a wide array of devices (e.g., embedded flash, HDDs, SSDs, USB flash drives, and memory cards) that contain 3D NAND flash memory. Asserted are five patents apparently received from Cypress Semiconductor, for which the complaint indicates LFMS is the owner but that IPValue “possesses substantial rights including the right to enforce the patent against” Western Digital.

RPX’s last look at notable patent assignments considered the movement of assets to Ueran Technology LLC from Huawei; to AX Wireless, LLC from SOLiD; to VideoLabs, Inc. from DCX US Agility Platform LLC, a subsidiary of DXC Technology; to Flash Uplink LLC from its publicly traded parent Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC); to various entities from Ascend Innovation Management, LLC entities; and to Nera Innovations Limited from multiple entities associated with Atlantic IP Services. It is time for a review of additional notable transfers recorded since then.

Monterey Research, LLC has brought four more patents into the litigation campaign that it began back in November 2019. It has done so through a new Eastern District of Texas suit filed against both DENSO and Renesas Electronics (2:24-cv-00238), DENSO as the alleged customer of the wide array of accused semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, including certain embedded flash memory devices, as well as microcontrollers. Past defendants in this campaign include AMD, Broadcom, Marvell, and Qualcomm, as well as Nanya Technology and STMicro, the cases against which are on the verge of closure after extensive activity before the USPTO over the patents asserted there.

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.

The case that Longitude Licensing Limited filed this past April against Hon Hai Precision Industry (Sharp) (2:23-cv-00165) over the provision of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) lasted about three months. It was dismissed without prejudice in July. Now, Longitude has asserted an overlapping set of former Seiko Epson patents against BOE Technology (2:23-cv-00515), targeting the provision of certain LCD panels and modules, which are alleged to be incorporated in third party devices such as “smartphones, tablet PCs, laptops, monitors, TVs, and vehicle infotainment displays” from HP and LG.

Longitude Licensing Limited has added suits against Acer (8:23-cv-00036), Amazon (8:23-cv-00039), ASUSTek (8:23-cv-00033), HP (8:23-cv-00038), and Lenovo (8:23-cv-00035) in the Central District of California to the case that Longitude filed last month against Dell in the same district. Each targets the provision or sale of Western Digital-branded memory components (e.g., flash memory, solid state drives, and memory chips), as well as products (e.g., computers, laptops, streaming devices, and tablets) incorporating such devices. In its complaints, the plaintiff pleads that in light of failed attempts to engage Western Digital in licensing negotiations, it began “contacting Western Digital customers who are selling products that infringe Longitude patents”.

In a new complaint filed in the Central District of California against Dell (8:22-cv-02312), Longitude Licensing Limited pleads a series of attempts to engage third party Western Digital in licensing negotiations. After a related arbitration proceeding “was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds”, the plaintiff turned to Dell, Longitude Licensing indicating that it sent a September 2022 letter representing that its “normal approach” would be to “engage with, and license, suppliers such as Western Digital rather than their customers” but because “Western Digital has refused to engage in any licensing discussions”, it began “contacting Western Digital customers who are selling products that infringe Longitude patents”. The new complaint has now followed, Longitude alleging infringement of three patents through the provision of laptops and tablets that incorporate certain Western Digital-branded memory devices (i.e., solid state drives and memory chips).

Recent months have seen a number of patent divestments by operating companies made public, with a range of assignees including frequent filers, publicly traded patent assertion entities, third-party funded plaintiffs, and newly formed NPEs. Divestment size has also varied widely—from a single transacted patent to thousands.

Monterey Research, LLC has filed two additional suits against AMD (6:21-cv-00839, 6:21-cv-00840), one in each of the IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue) plaintiff’s litigation campaigns. The complaints target a wide spectrum of Athlon, EPYC, Radeon, Ryzen, and/or Zen-branded products, including various chipsets, integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, and more. These cases—the second and third filed by Monterey Research against AMD—follow a similar pair of suits filed against Broadcom earlier this summer.