Enchanted IP LLC, a Texas entity associated with monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has begun a campaign over a single patent generally concerning an external battery that can use a “detection terminal” to charge or discharge. The defendants are Hon Hai (Belkin) (2:19-cv-07572) and ZAGG (Mophie) (8:19-cv-01648), each sued in the Central District of California; Sunvalleytek International d/b/a RAVpower (3:19-cv-05513) and Tenergy (3:19-cv-05512) in the Northern District of California; Anker Innovations (1:19-cv-01632) in the District of Delaware; and Procter & Gamble (Duracell) (1:19-cv-11858), sued in the District of Massachusetts, with the plaintiff naming in its complaints the companies’ portable chargers: the Belkin Pocket Power, the Mophie Juice Pack Reserve, the RAVPower Power Bank, the Tenergy TB6AC, Anker’s PowerCore+, and the Duracell Powerbank, respectively. IP Edge received the sole patent-in-suit as part of a larger acquisition, involving roughly a dozen US assets, from Huawei.

In late August 2019, while IP Edge LLC dropped four brand new litigation campaigns through litigating entities Aristors Licensing LLC (over a patent received from an inventor-controlled entity), Enchanted IP LLC (over a patent received from Huawei), Sonohm Licensing LLC  (over patents received from Siemens), and Zyrcuits IP LLC (over a patent received from Linex Technologies, Inc.), the Texas monetization firm also added cases across an even broader set of its many campaigns. Altair Logix LLC, Digi Portal LLC, EncodiTech LLC, Saros Licensing LLC, and Wave Linx LLC—each a Texas plaintiff associated with IP Edge—have all filed cases over the past week.

The last couple of years have seen Texas monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC shift away from the acquisition of smaller families of patents from various sources toward the acquisition of large portfolios of assets—of former Kodak patents in March 2017, of former NEC patents in February 2018, and of former American Express patents in March 2018, all from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), as well as a large portfolio of assets acquired directly from Panasonic beginning in October 2018. Dominion (through subsidiaries of its litigation arm Monument Patent Holdings, LLC) has asserted patents from those large-portfolio acquisitions in litigation, and while it has continued litigating assets acquired prior to this strategy shift, that activity has dropped off. Assignment records recently made public by the USPTO suggest that, in addition, Dominion has begun to shed some of the smaller families that it had acquired under its earlier model.

Publicly traded Marathon Patent Group, Inc. has announced a settlement with Symantec, ending the company’s litigation against the NPE and several other defendants over alleged fraud and misrepresentations stemming from a 2012 patent monetization agreement. As Marathon recently disclosed in an SEC filing, the settlement was executed on March 8 and has led to the dismissal of litigation filed by Symantec in California state court against Marathon; IPNav and its founder and former CEO Erich Spangenberg; two other entities involved in the relevant transactions, Marathon’s Clouding Corp. and IPNav’s Clouding IP LLC; and Clouding IP’s manager, William J. Carter. The settlement also resolved a related Delaware District Court suit filed by Symantec against IPNav and Spangenberg alone.

Inventor-controlled NPE Lemaire Illumination Technologies LLC has added Microsoft (2:17-cv-00729) to its sole litigation campaign, just over two weeks after the dismissal of its two lawsuits against LG Electronics (LGE). As in those previous cases, Microsoft is alleged to infringe three patents generally related to controlling and powering a solid-state light source such as a light-emitting diode (LED), with the color-adjusted camera flash systems of its Lumia 950 smartphone lineup at issue (including those from the single- and dual-SIM variants of the smaller Lumia 950 as well as the Lumia 950 XL).

Mobile Networking Solutions, LLC (MNS) has kicked off a campaign asserting patents that have been previously litigated by Parallel Iron LLC (a subsidiary of IP Navigation Group, LLC d/b/a IPNav) against nearly 50 defendants. MNS, which is managed by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, sued Experian and MapR Technologies on May 19, alleging infringement of three physical computer storage patents (7,197,662; 7,543,177; 7,958,388) through Experian’s data storage systems based on the MapR Distribution including Hadoop (8:17-cv-00884).

Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC (DHE), an affiliate of patent monetization firm Dominion Harbor Group, LLC (DHG), has formed a new European licensing partnership with Swedish IP brokerage and consulting firm Parallel North IP AB. In a press release issued on May 3, DHE announced that it will work with Parallel North IP to monetize the portfolio of former Kodak imaging patents that DHG subsidiary Monument Peak Ventures, LLC acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in February. DHE describes the deal with Parallel North IP as part of a “comprehensive global plan to commercialize” the Kodak portfolio.

RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first half of March, of the transfer of one set of patents to Fortress Investment Group LLC, after the NPE assignor’s default on a prior financing agreement. Fortress intervened in the campaign asserting some of those patents, bringing the litigation to a relatively rapid close. RPX also took notice of the transfer of patents from multiple assignors to another entity, Knapp Investment Company Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity that has never filed suit. The records made available in early March also contain transfers to frequent plaintiffs, including affiliates of patent monetization firms IP Valuation Partners LLC and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, as well as Blackbird Tech LLC and Empire IP LLC.

RPX observed several patent transfers to NPEs that were recorded in the first half of January 2017. Assignees included Empire IP LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, and a subsidiary of AIP Acquisition LLC, with the named inventors on the transferred patents including two former telecommunications entrepreneurs and a medical device engineer.

Drogo IP LLC, an affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed its first litigation, accusing Medivators (2:17-cv-00021) and Olympus (2:17-cv-00020) of infringing a single medical device patent (5,782,765). Both companies are alleged to infringe through the provision of capsule endoscopes, which are pill-sized diagnostic devices containing cameras that are swallowed by patients, allowing photography of the gastrointestinal tract.