International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA) has filed suit against ADTRAN (1:17-cv-00562), its third complaint brought this month after cases against Ericsson (1:17-cv-00507) and NTT (1:17-cv-00508). The NPE’s latest lawsuit accuses ADTRAN of infringing six former Nortel patents (5,959,990; 6,970,461; 7,274,704; 7,277,533; 7,478,167; RE40,999), two of which (the ‘704 and 533 patents) are here asserted for the first time. The company is alleged to infringe through the provision of various Ethernet switches, routers, and gateways; IP phones; and line cards; as well as through certain cloud management services. Meanwhile, ILEA dismissed its case against Ericsson without prejudice on May 11; that complaint accused the company infringing the ‘990 and ‘999 patents through various types of enterprise networking hardware.

International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA), an affiliate of Equitable IP Corporation, has added Nokia and subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent to its networking campaign, accusing the two companies of infringing five former Nortel patents (6,222,848; 6,578,086; 6,697,325; 7,158,515; RE40,999). At issue in the complaint are various types of enterprise-grade networking hardware offered by Alcatel-Lucent, including access multiplexers for DSL and fiber optic networks, routers, and switches (1:16-cv-01077). Nokia has already been dismissed without prejudice, on December 1, just over a week after the case was filed.

International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA), an entity apparently managed by Equitable IP Corporation subsidiary Equitable IP Holdings, LLC, has added DragonWave (1:16-cv-00797), Fortinet (1:16-cv-00795), and GTT Communications (1:16-cv-00796) to its new networking campaign. ILEA’s latest complaints assert the same former Nortel patent (RE40,999) as in all but one of its initial filings, which hit a host of cable and satellite companies (Cablevision, Echostar (Echostar Corp., Hughes), Frontier Communications, ViaSat) and telecommunications providers (SOFTBANK (Clearwire, Sprint) in mid-August. Cincinnati Bell, also targeted in that first round of lawsuits, is alleged to infringe two additional Nortel patents (6,970,461; 7,478,167) from different families, along with the ‘999 patent. As in those earlier suits, DragonWave, Fortinet, and GTT have been accused of infringement through the provision of various types of hardware and services related to enterprise networking and broadband.

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

During the second half of February 2015 RPX saw 13 transfers of patents recorded with the USPTO.

Cable One, Cequel, Charter, Knology, and Wow! filed suit against Rockstar Consortium and related entities Bockstar, Constellation, and Spherix over alleged violation of FRAND obligations. The plaintiffs allege that Rockstar is misusing the patent portfolio it acquired from Nortel Networks and is violating FRAND (fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory) licensing obligations related to Nortel’s prior participation in standards setting. According to the complaint, shortly after Rockstar acquired the Nortel portfolio, it began a campaign targeting plaintiffs and others for patent infringement. Rockstar’s assertion letters to plaintiffs identified exemplars of the types of communications and networking patents it believed the companies were infringing (including 5,471,474, 5,761,197), but declined to identify a finite number or provide a comprehensive list of allegedly infringed patents. Plaintiffs maintain Rockstar broadly accused companies of infringing its portfolio as a whole and demanded licensing discussions under threat of serial patent litigation. Rockstar required those willing to engage in licensing discussions to sign nondisclosure agreements before receiving information about the patents or license terms; plaintiffs insist this practice was a direct effort by Rockstar to conduct an improper licensing campaign in violation of FRAND obligations. 01/14, Delaware District Court, 1:14cv00055

February 21, 2013 – Last week, the USPTO recorded the latest assignments by Rockstar Bidco of five issued US patents and two pending US applications to Texas-based Rockstar Consortium US LP. Rockstar Bidco, the consortium of six companies that successfully bid $4.5 billion in 2011 to acquire the patent portfolio of bankrupt Canadian telecom company Nortel Networks, received a total of 3,852 issued and pending US patents as part of the transaction. Of those, a total of 1,410 were subsequently assigned to consortium participants Apple, Microsoft, and RIM, the largest portion of which went to Apple. To date, Apple reportedly invested $2.6 billion to the transaction and has received 815 issued US patents and 315 pending US applications. RIM, which reportedly contributed $770 million to the transaction, has received 172 issued US patents and 72 pending US applications to date, and Microsoft has received 24 issued US patents and 17 pending US applications, but has not disclosed their financial contribution to the consortium. Other Rockstar Bidco participants EMC, Ericsson, and Sony presumably received licenses to the portfolio, which Ericsson has reportedly contributed $340 million. The seven total issued and pending US patents of last week represent the most recent recordations of a series of assignments to Rockstar Consortium by Rockstar Bidco. Although Rockstar, the licensing entity formed to monetize the Nortel patents and employing a number of its former licensing employees, has yet to initiate any litigation to date, it is likely that the Texas-based LP’s holdings could be the subject of future enforcement efforts, should they take place. Rockstar has also made several (thus far unsuccessful) attempts to sell segments of the portfolio to prospective buyers.