RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first half of March, of the transfer of one set of patents to Fortress Investment Group LLC, after the NPE assignor’s default on a prior financing agreement. Fortress intervened in the campaign asserting some of those patents, bringing the litigation to a relatively rapid close. RPX also took notice of the transfer of patents from multiple assignors to another entity, Knapp Investment Company Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity that has never filed suit. The records made available in early March also contain transfers to frequent plaintiffs, including affiliates of patent monetization firms IP Valuation Partners LLC and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, as well as Blackbird Tech LLC and Empire IP LLC.

Steelhead Licensing filed two lawsuits in a new campaign against defendants Charter Communications and Comcast. Defendants’ cable modems are accused of infringement. The patent-in-suit originated with British Telecom and relates to the management of service requests (8,082,318). The patent was not asserted in any of Steelhead’s previous suits.  The ’318 patent was offered for sale at the Spring 2013 ICAP Ocean Tomo Auction. (OT ICAP SPRING 13 – Lot 07 – IO-Global 1).  USPTO assignment records do not indicate when the patent was assigned by the previous holder, IO (an IP equipment provider), to Wildcat Licensing (an entity presumably related to Steelhead). 12/20, District of Delaware, 1:13cv02075, 1:13cv02076