Patent assignments executed in late 2022 and early 2023 continue to surface among USPTO data, with several transactions hinting at possible litigation campaigns to come. The assignees include a newly surfaced Atlantic IP Services Limited NPE, multiple NPEs apparently associated with a familiar figure in patent monetization, and an NPE that—according to public records—has received funding from a prominent litigation finance firm.

Operating company patents continued to spread among NPEs throughout 2022, including to familiar faces in patent monetization. While a number of those recipients have yet to file any litigation, several did launch new campaigns during the fourth quarter—some with the backing of third-party litigation funding.

Dell (6:22-cv-00642) is the latest defendant to be added to the sole litigation campaign of Harfang IP Investment Corp plaintiff Ozmo Licensing LLC (f/k/a Sonic Wave LLC), launched in April 2021. The defendant is accused of infringing six wireless networking patents, one of which is newly asserted in litigation, through the provision of devices (i.e., computers, laptops, monitors, and tablets) that are compliant with the Wi-Fi Direct protocol.

In its new complaint against HP (6:21-cv-00383), Ozmo Licensing LLC targets with two patents the provision of Wi-Fi enabled products—specifically, “numerous wireless devices, including laptop computers, desktop computers, printers and monitors”, which the plaintiff pleads that “Wi-Fi protocols allow . . . to act as a hub to receive, for example, images from an IEEE 802.11 access point and to forward such images to a second device using Wi-Fi Direct”. The complaint is the first filed by the plaintiff, which is associated with monetization firm Harfang IP Investment Corp. Ozmo Licensing indicates that it “is working to widely and reasonably license its current patent portfolio” and to “concomitantly pursu[e] related patent applications”, both “with the support of” the asserted patents’ named inventors.

As extensively reported by RPX, the acquisition and assertion of operating company patents by NPEs remained a significant driver of litigation throughout 2020. Be prepared for this long-term trend to possibly accelerate as a result of the COVID-19 recession. If past is prologue, the current financial crisis will likely be followed by years of increased patent divestments by operating companies—including to NPEs.

Late October saw a number of patent assignments to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. The assignees included publicly traded NPE Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC) as well as entities associated with monetization firms Harfang IP Investment Corp (d/b/a Harfang IP) and IPValuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal).

Earlier this year, an assignment from Shanghai Langbo Communication Technology—a self-described “IP-centric start-up company” focused on “4G and 5G SEP creation”—to Sisvel International S.A. came to light. Now, a second assignment by Langbo has surfaced, this time to Chris Dubuc’s new monetization firm Harfang IP Investment Corp (d/b/a Harfang IP), suggesting that the research lab, founded in 2013, is exploring options for monetizing its “5G patents”.

On January 28, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) and Ozmo Licensing LLC—a Texas entity associated with Chris Dubuc’s new monetization firm Harfang IP Investment Corp (d/b/a Harfang IP)—announced an agreement under which Ozmo will license IV patents to “select companies in the Wi-Fi Direct space”. The announcement follows Dubuc’s departure from Longhorn IP LLC and a late 2019 assignment from IV to Ozmo, which was recently reported by RPX.

Nordic Interactive Technologies LLC, an entity associated with monetization firm Longhorn IP LLC, has filed its first litigation, accusing Samsung (6:20-cv-00064) of infringing two patents that the plaintiff acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) last May. Nordic targets the provision of Samsung devices supporting certain features of Bluetooth 2.1 (or later) with one of the patents, generally related to nearby device detection and the inclusion of various standard telephony features in certain Samsung smartphones with the other, broadly concerning telephone number processing.