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.

In June 2021, Marlin Semiconductor Limited, identified as one of the portfolios of monetization firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue), received over 480 US patents from United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). Earlier this month, according to USPTO assignment records made public, an additional batch of patents followed the same path. While IPValue has yet to litigate its Marlin portfolio in the US, it has sued over patents from several of its other portfolios—one of which led, just last week, to the invalidation of several, but not all, of the patents-in-suit under Alice and another of which has spawned accusations of an “untoward and actionable” provision in a “hidden” license agreement.

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”.

Future Link Systems, LLC has kicked off a second litigation campaign over two patents from its portfolio of former NXP assets generally related to on-chip power management. The IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue) plaintiff has sued 11 defendants in separate complaints, accusing AMD, Amlogic, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and Realtek Semiconductor of infringement through the provision of certain multicore ARM systems-on-chip (SoCs) or processors, including those with performance and efficiency cores, targeting features allowing processors to power down components (including cores) when not in use. Acer, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) are alleged to infringe through devices incorporating such SoCs or processors. Future Link has also filed a complaint before the International Trade Commission (ITC) (337-TA-1295), proposing as respondents those same defendants.

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.

According to USPTO records, an Irish NPE received over 480 US patents from United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) in June of this year. Irish corporate records reflect ties between the NPE assignee and the monetization firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue), which has over the years acquired thousands of patent assets directly from operating companies—including more than 1,200 assets recently received from the display business unit of Mitsubishi Electric.

On July 14, IPValue Management, Inc. (d/b/a IPValue) announced that its Trivale Technologies, LLC subsidiary has acquired over 1,200 patent assets from the display business unit of Mitsubishi Electric. The portfolio is described as encompassing “a broad range of LCD, OLED, and other technologies for high value display products”. The transaction is not yet reflected in currently available USPTO records.

Monterey Research, LLC, a plaintiff associated with Vector Capital’s IPValue Management, Inc. (d/b/a IPValue), has filed two lawsuits against Broadcom (6:21-cv-00541, 6:21-cv-00542). The NPE asserts a total of ten semiconductor and memory patents across the two complaints. The new litigation—filed in the Western District of Texas this time—arrives as multiple 2021 orders have stayed some, but not all, of the NPE’s previous cases in the District of Delaware in light of several inter partes reviews (IPRs) underway before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). A wide spectrum of Broadcom chips and related products are targeted in the new suits.