Briefing has completed in a motion to stay filed by Amazon in a Northern District of New York case brought against it by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and CF Dynamic Advances LLC (a Fortress Investment Group LLC subsidiary). Amazon has asked District Judge Brenda K. Sannes to stop the New York proceedings to await the outcome of a Texas state court action filed to resolve a dispute over the ownership of the asserted patent (as well as several others) between Fortress and prior exclusive licensee Dynamic Advances, LLC, an entity affiliated with Erich Spangenberg. The motion follows Amazon’s answer, filed after denial of the defendant’s motion to dismiss or transfer, in which Judge Sannes hinged venue on the presence of Amazon Lockers in the New York district—not on the presence of Whole Foods stores.

A fight between Fortress Investment Group LLC and Erich Spangenberg over the transfer of a single patent already in active litigation has broken out, first into federal court and now into New York state court. The patent is one among many relinquished by Marathon Patent Group, Inc. to Fortress last year after the NPE failed to repay Fortress $15.99M in debt financing. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) developed the patent, which a Fortress entity is currently asserting against Amazon; the patent was also the subject of litigation against Apple that ended in a reported $24.9M settlement in 2016. Court filings in connection with the dispute between Fortress and Spangenberg shed light on the millions of dollars at stake in the monetization of patents that Marathon was forced to hand over.