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March PTAB Petitions Take Aim at Frequent Plaintiffs, Both Publicly Traded and Private
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.
April 7, 2017
Blue Spike Files Fresh Wave of Cases after Getting Hit by Kyocera DJ Action
Blue Spike LLC has filed another round of lawsuits in its long-running digital watermarking campaign, accusing Element Technologies (6:17-cv-00097), Giada Technology (6:17-cv-00098), NVIDIA (6:17-cv-00096), Razer (6:17-cv-00099), Roku (6:17-cv-00100), and Skystream Technologies (6:17-cv-00101) of infringing seven patents (5,745,569; 7,159,116; 7,475,246; 8,171,561; 8,538,011; 8,739,295; 8,930,719) through the provision of various Android-based mobile devices and set-top media players. These latest cases come a week after Kyocera filed a declaratory judgment (DJ) action (3:17-cv-00262) against the NPE, which had moved to dismiss its affirmative infringement suit against the company without prejudice just one day before (6:16-cv-01142). Kyocera’s complaint seeks a judgment of non-infringement for the ‘569 and ‘719 patents, which Blue Spike had asserted against the company’s Android smartphones.
February 17, 2017
Blue Spike Pivots Back to Mobile Devices and TVs with Latest Filings
Blue Spike LLC has added new cases against LeEco (LeMall) (6:17-cv-00063), Toshiba (6:17-cv-00053), and Vizio (6:17-cv-00060) to its long-running digital watermarking campaign. After accusing Juniper Networks (6:17-cv-00016) of infringement through various enterprise networking products in a January 6 complaint, the NPE’s latest filings shift the focus of the campaign back to consumer electronics. The three defendants are alleged to infringe multiple combinations of 27 different patents through the provision of smart TVs, with Toshiba laptops and smartphones sold by LeMall also at issue. Blue Spike’s complaint against Toshiba, filed on January 26, was soon followed by a victory for the company in another campaign, when a Delaware jury issued a finding of non-infringement in a case brought by Intellectual Ventures LLC. See here for more information about that verdict and the preceding litigation.
February 3, 2017
Blue Spike Pulls Juniper Networks into Digital Watermarking Campaign
Blue Spike LLC has added Juniper Networks (6:17-cv-00016) to its sprawling digital watermarking campaign, accusing the company of infringing 26 patents, including nine (7,095,874; 7,409,073; 7,647,502; 7,664,264; 7,779,261; 7,987,371; 7,991,188; 9,021,602; 9,104,842) litigated for the first time. At issue in the NPE’s latest complaint are various Juniper routers and switches, as well as a variety of network management software and services.
January 13, 2017
Blue Spike Files More Cases amid Loss of Alice Appeal
October saw Blue Spike LLC file two new cases in its digital watermarking campaign, pushing its defendant count to over 170. On October 11, the NPE sued electronics manufacturers Contixo, MTM Trading, Proexpress Distributor, TCL, and Visual Land (6:16-cv-01220), accusing the companies of infringing two patents through the provision of various mobile devices. The following week, it filed suit against several members of the Kudelski Group (2:16-cv-01191), alleging infringement of ten patents through watermarking technology used to secure video content. These latest cases straddled a loss in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the NPE (16-1054). On October 14, the Federal Circuit affirmed a 2015 district court ruling that invalidated five of Blue Spike’s patents-in-campaign under Alice.
October 27, 2016
Blue Spike Adds ZTE as Second Defendant to Its Second Litigation Campaign
A week after Blue Spike LLC’s case against Audible Magic and 20 of its customers was dismissed, the NPE turned its attention to its newest litigation campaign, suing ZTE (6:16-cv-01020) over a group of six patents generally related to packet watermarking (7,287,275; 8,224,705; 8,473,746; 8,706,570; RE44,222; RE44,307). The complaint filed on July 15 accuses ZTE of infringement through provision of routers and switches. This case is the second filed in a campaign that Blue Spike initiated in February of this year; the first case, lodged against Huawei (6:16-cv-00048), is active in initial pleadings.
July 19, 2016
Blue Spike’s Defendant Count Edges Toward 150
Blue Spike LLC sued Best Buy (6:16-cv-00427), iRULU (with USA111, 6:16-cv-00428), and Toshiba (6:16-cv-00430) on May 13, bringing the total number of defendants in its digital watermarking campaign to 148. The NPE’s complaints against Best Buy and Toshiba accuse the companies’ tablets of infringing two patents (5,745,569; 8,930,719) that generally concern protection of digital information. Blue Spike’s complaint against iRULU and USA111 (an online retailer that allegedly manufactures and sells iRULU products) accuses the companies of infringing the ‘569 and ‘719 patent through mobile devices sold under the iRULU brand. These latest suits come a month after Blue Spike asserted the same two patents in similar cases against ASUSTek, BLU Products, and Lenovo; see “Blue Spike’s Digital Watermarking Campaign, Twelve Years in the Making, Grows Larger” (April 2016) for more information.
May 20, 2016
Blue Spike’s Digital Watermarking Campaign, Twelve Years in the Making, Grows Larger
Despite an unfavorable Alice ruling late last year, Blue Spike LLC’s digital watermark campaign, initiated in April 2004 by Blue Spike Inc., continues to grow. On April 1, Blue Spike filed four separate suits against ASUS (6:16-cv-00273), BLU Products (6:16-cv-00271), Lenovo (6:16-cv-00272), and Verimatrix (2:16-cv-00329). The complaints against ASUS, BLU, and Lenovo assert two patents (5,745,569; 8,930,719) previously asserted in a number of Blue Spike’s over 120 cases filed to date. Blue Spike alleges that the companies infringe the ‘569 and ‘719 patents through their mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The NPE’s complaint against Verimatrix accuses the company of infringing a group of ten patents (5,889,868; 7,770,017; 7,877,609; 7,913,087; 7,953,981; 8,121,343; 8,161,286; 8,175,330; 8,225,099; 8,307,213) through its digital watermarking technologies, including the defendant’s VideoMark and StreamMark products. (Blue Spike has filed only one other suit asserting the same ten patents, against The Nielsen Company (6:16-cv-00042) in February 2016; the case was dismissed with prejudice last week.)
April 7, 2016
Blue Spike Expands Its Long-Running Digital Watermarking Campaign and Kicks off a New One, Too
Two new cases filed against The Nielsen Company (6:16-cv-00042) and Huawei (6:16-cv-00048) this week introduced 15 Blue Spike LLC patents not previously seen in litigation. The suit against Nielsen, filed on February 5, involves ten related patents (5,889,868; 7,770,017; 7,877,609; 7,913,087; 7,953,981; 8,121,343; 8,161,286; 8,175,330; 8,225,099; 8,307,213), only one of which (the ‘868 patent) has been previously asserted, in Blue Spike’s expansive digital watermarking campaign. The complaint accuses Nielsen of infringing the patents-in-suit through technologies that encode watermarks within audio content. Blue Spike’s complaint against Huawei, lodged on February 10, accuses the company’s routers of infringing six related patents that generally concern packet watermarking (7,287,275; 8,224,705; 8,473,746; 8,706,570; RE44,222; RE44,307).
February 11, 2016
Blue Spike Reboots Its Litigation Campaign with a New Patent
Now that claims of five of its patents have been ruled invalid under Alice, Blue Spike LLC, an NPE that has sued over 100 companies since 2012, has introduced a new patent (8,930,719) to its sole litigation campaign. In three separate complaints filed this week, Blue Spike accuses DMM Brands (maker of Yezz mobile devices) (2:15-cv-01779), Huawei (2:15-cv-01780), and Infosonics (maker of verykool mobile devices) (2:15-cv-01778) of infringing the ‘719 patent through their smartphones and tablets. The ‘719 patent, which generally concerns protection of digital information, issued in January of this year to Scott Moskowitz, Blue Spike’s CEO.
November 19, 2015