Per publicly available USPTO records, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) has divested a portfolio of patents to Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC in each of 2020 (to Fleet Connect Solutions LLC), 2022 (to IoT Innovations LLC), and 2024 (to Integral Wireless Technologies LLC). Integral Wireless has now joined the other two in litigating its received assets, accusing D-Link (2:25-cv-00388) of infringing eight patents in a new Eastern District of Texas complaint. IV appears to have retained an interest in the monetization of these three portfolios.

Last June, Cellular Link Innovations LLC, an Empire IP LLC plaintiff, filed a joint motion to stay its June 2023 case against Verizon (Verizon Wireless), together with a notice of settlement. It took three months for that suit to be dismissed; now, Cellular Link has sued Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:25-cv-00331), also in the Eastern District of Texas, over the same wireless networking patent. Targeted is the provision of 5G network services and related products through T-Mobile’s “wireless network architecture”, as well as “certain methods for base station utilization”.

BT Wearables LLC has filed an Eastern District of Texas suit against Zepp Health (2:25-cv-00318) over the provision of its smartwatches, targeting functionality that “calculates the calories burned by the user and transmits this data to a remote device; includes a user input device for selecting an exercise; includes an accelerometer and heart rate sensor; executes speech commands from the user; couples to a mobile telephone; and identifies the activity of the user”. Seven patents have been asserted, five of them already in suit against prior defendants Citizen Electronics (Citizen Watch) and Dillards.

AR Design Innovations, LLC, a plaintiff associated with Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC, has filed suit against Target (2:25-cv-00299) in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff asserts a single patent generally related to a client that retrieves a 3D model from a server and then allows the manipulation and placement of the model within a 3D scene to produce a photorealistic rendered image that includes certain “luminosity characteristics”. Target is accused of infringement through the provision of its mobile app, which supports the “See It in Your Space” augmented reality (AR) tool.

USPTO assignment records indicate that three entities tied to Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC have received patent portfolios from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). The first of them, Fleet Connect Solutions LLC (FCS), received its assets in May 2020 and began suing over them that December, including in districts that impose heightened disclosure requirements on litigants. Last month, RPX reported that, according to certifications filed across those districts, “Not One Person Is Apparently Interested, Financially or Otherwise, in the Outcome of Fleet Connect’s Cases” (December 2024). Since then, FCS (represented by Rozier Hardt McDonough PLLC) has filed a series of amended certifications, providing a list of interested nonparties, beyond “None”, but FCS has yet to do so across the board, and the other Empire IP plaintiff litigating assets from IV has not amended its “none” certifications.

IoT Innovations LLC has filed a second suit against Resideo Technologies (Snap One) (2:25-cv-00022). Eight patents, familiar to the campaign, are asserted with the Eastern District of Texas complaint targeting the provision of Control4 Smart Home. Public records confirm that IoT Innovations is an Empire IP LLC plaintiff and that at least one Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) entity retains an interest in monetization proceeds from the asserted portfolio, but IoT Innovations just certified to the Central District of California, where it filed its last case, against Lutron Electronics, that there are no nonparties with a pecuniary interest in the outcome there. Insight, PLC signed that certification over a signature block containing litigation counsel Rozier Hardt McDonough PLLC.

Already in December, Fleet Connect Solutions LLC (FCS), an Empire IP LLC plaintiff, has sued Lenovo (2:24-cv-01047), Moxa (2:24-cv-01050), Olympus and OM Digital Solutions (2:24-cv-01049), Pittasoft (2:24-cv-01029), Portable Multimedia (2:24-cv-01054), and Southwest International Trucks (2:24-cv-01024), all in the Eastern District of Texas, as well as Schneider National Carriers (2:24-cv-10435), in the Central District of California. That latter district, like the Northern District of California and the Northern District of Georgia, where Fleet Connect has filed other cases, imposes heightened disclosure requirements on litigants—requirements in response to which FCS, represented in all of these districts by Rozier Hardt McDonough PLLC, has uniformly identified no “persons” having a financial or other interest in the outcome of the case.

In November, Empire IP LLC plaintiff Fleet Connect Solutions LLC (FCS) expanded its sole litigation campaign with suits against Bose (2:24-cv-00941), Comcast (2:24-cv-00961), and Murata Manufacturing (Murata Electronics North America) (2:24-cv-00964) in the Eastern District of Texas and Cox Enterprises (Cox Communications) (1:24-cv-05269) in the Northern District of Georgia. The seven asserted patents, received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), are broadly directed to wireless communications. The defendants are accused over a wide array of products, ranging from Bluetooth/Wi-Fi modules to smart speakers, that support Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11ac/b/n.

Nearby Systems LLC, a plaintiff associated with Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC, has added cases against Truist Financial (2:24-cv-00952) and Whataburger (2:24-cv-00954) to the litigation campaign that it launched in June 2022 with suits against CVS, Deli Management, and Rent-A-Center. In the new Eastern District of Texas complaints, the plaintiff asserts three patents generally related to “displaying location-based content on a digital map” on a mobile device. The defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of mobile apps that feature maps for allowing users to locate and navigate to store locations.

One well-established monetization operation has announced the acquisition of a portfolio of patents from Innolux, while another is the recipient of yet another batch of patents assembled and divested from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). Meanwhile, a newer monetization team has picked up a set of patents from an operating company in a move suggesting that litigation over the received assets is coming.