RPX took note of several patent asset transfers to NPEs recorded during the second half of December 2016. Assignees included Texas NPE Synergy Drone LLC, Nevada NPE Jonker LLC, and Delaware NPE Empire Technology Development LLC, and the named inventors on the different patent assets form an eclectic bunch.

Publicly traded NPE Tessera Technologies, Inc. has filed two new district court suits against Broadcom subsidiary Avago. On November 8, Tessera, Inc. and Invensas Corporation sued the company over two semiconductor patents not previously seen in litigation (6,573,609; 6,972,480) (1:16-cv-01034). That same day, Invensas filed a second complaint against Avago (1:16-cv-01033), this time asserting a pair of patents (6,133,136; 6,849,946) that are currently at issue in a litigation campaign involving Broadcom, Arista, ASUS, Comcast, HTC, NETGEAR, and others. Just as Tessera’s last wave of litigation, filed in May of this year, followed a disappointing financial quarter (see here), the NPE’s latest filings came a week after Tessera announced a decline in its third quarter revenue.

This week, publicly traded NPE Tessera Technologies, Inc. filed its first US infringement actions since 2012, suing Broadcom in two district court suits and in a complaint lodged with the International Trade Commission (ITC) over a group of semiconductor patents. Only two of the patents-in-suit issued to Tessera; the remaining five originated with Cypress Semiconductor, IBM, Lenovo (Motorola), Panasonic, or Sony. This week’s suits appear to be the first in which the seven patents-in-campaign have been asserted.

In the second half of March 2016, RPX saw twelve patent transfers to known NPEs recorded with the USPTO. Several of those transactions involved patents that have already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.

In the first two weeks of January 2016, RPX saw eight patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO.

In the second half of April 2015, RPX saw 13 transfers of patents recorded with the USPTO.