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.

A voice communications patent (7,269,247) asserted by NPE AIP Acquisition LLC has been partly invalidated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In an inter partes review (IPR) initiated by Cisco (IPR2015-00307), the Board issued a final decision on May 18, 2016, ruling that claims 1-9, 11-24, and 26-29 of the ‘247 patent—including all of those asserted in litigation—are obvious in light of prior art. The ‘279 patent is the fifth asserted in this campaign (6,078,654; 6,188,756; 6,496,579; 7,724,879) to see claims cancelled via IPR.

Telecommunications carriers are the latest targets of the AIP campaign. AIP filed suits against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon accusing the carriers’ click-to-call and simultaneous ring service features of infringement. The cases involve a total of five patents related to integrating voice and data network technologies (6,078,654, 6,188,756, 6,496,579, 7,269,247, 7,724,879). All five patents are asserted against AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. The case against wireless carrier T-Mobile asserts only the ’879 patent. In 2012, AIP sued cable providers Cablevision, Cox, Charter and Time Warner Cable. In January 2014, those cases were stayed pending inter partes review of the ’879 patent. The AIP patents originated with carrier networking provider Arbinet and were assigned to AIP in 2011, around the time Arbinet was acquired by Primus Telecommunications. RPX reviewed the patents-in-suit as part of an open market opportunity (Arbinet-Acq) in August 2009. 4/23, District of Delaware, 1:14cv00513, 1:14cv00514, 1:14cv00515, 1:14cv00516