In the third quarter of last year, Wi-LAN, Inc. joined Acacia Research Corporation to become one of the two most active publicly traded NPEs in patent litigation (among the over 20 publicly traded NPEs that RPX monitors). But while Acacia and WiLAN have continued to share that distinction over the past year, according to the NPEs’ recent earnings reports, they ended Q3 2016 with markedly different overall results.

On December 30, 2015, Acacia subsidiaries Innovative Display Technologies LLC (IDT) and Delaware Display Group LLC (DDG) filed new cases against Lenovo (1:15-cv-01220), LG Electronics (1:15-cv-01221), and VIZIO (1:15-cv-01222).  Each case asserts three patents (7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,973) that the NPEs were forced to drop in related cases, also active in the District of Delaware. In October, Judge Richard Andrews agreed to stay those related cases entirely unless IDT/DDG agreed to drop, without prejudice, its claims of infringement as to the ‘177, ‘660, and ‘973 patents, each of which is subject to an instituted inter partes review (IPR) based on petitions filed by LG (IPR2015-00489 (‘177 patent), IPR2015-00487 (‘660 patent), IPR2015-00506 (‘973 patent)). IDT/DDG dropped those patents from the earlier cases, Judge Andrews denied the motion to stay, the earlier cases proceeded, and IDT/DDG has now filed these separate actions for infringement. In their complaints, the NPEs expressly agree to stays of the new cases pending resolution of the instituted IPRs.

The latest wave of patent infringement suits filed by Acacia subsidiaries Innovative Display Technologies (IDT) and Delaware Display Group (DDG) targeted AT&T (2:14-cv-00720), Sprint (2:14-cv-00721), T-Mobile (2:14-cv-00723), and Verizon (2:14-cv-00722). Each suit asserts at least seven of a group of eight patents related to LCD components (6,755,547; 7,300,194; 7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,974; 7,537,370; 7,914,196; 8,215,816). The complaints accuse defendants’ mobile phones and tablets with a liquid crystal display of infringing the asserted patents. According to plaintiffs, some of the accused products are manufactured by Samsung; however, the allegations of infringement with regard to Samsung products are limited to only those manufactured after March 2, 2014.

Innovative Display Technologies (IDT) continues to find new targets for its campaign asserting patents related to LCD components. Its newest suit is against Google and asserts eight of the 19 patents that have been used in the campaign (5,613,751, 6,755,547, 7,300,194, 7,384,177, 7,404,660, 7,434,974, 7,537,370, 8,215,816). The campaign by the Acacia subsidiary has been targeting devices with a LCD screen and in this filing Google’s tablets and smartphones are the accused products. Almost 30 cases have been filed since IDT began asserting these patents in litigation almost a year ago. The asserted patents originated with Solid State Opto and were transferred to Rambus in 2009, then assigned to Acacia in March 2013. At this point the campaign has targeted most major smartphone and tablet makers, including Apple, Acer, Blackberry, Dell, HP, LG, Nokia, and Sony. 4/8, Eastern District of Texas, 2:14cv00302

Innovative Display Technology, an  Acacia Research subsidiary, filed six new suits naming BMW, Canon, Garmin, MiTAC, Nikon, and TomTom as defendants. A total of fifteen patents are involved in the new filings (6,079,838, 6,508,563, 6,755,547, 6,886,956, 7,160,015, 7,165,873, 7,300,194, 7,384,177, 7,404,660, 7,434,974, 7,537,370, 7,736,043, 7,963,687, 8,142,063, 8,215,816). The asserted patents relate to lighting technology used in LCD screens and were acquired from Rambus.  2/21, Eastern District of Texas, 2:14cv00106, 2/26, Eastern District of Texas, 2:14cv00142, 2:14cv00143, 2:14cv00144, 2/27, Eastern District of Texas, 2:14cv00145, 2:14cv00146

New Acacia subsidiary Delaware Display Group (DDG), along with co-plaintiff Innovative Display Technologies (IDT), filed its first seven litigations to close out 2013. IDT, another Acacia subsidiary, began its litigation campaign in June 2013 asserting a group of seven patents related to light emitting panel assemblies used in LCDs (6,755,547; 7,300,194; 7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,974; 7,537,370; 8,215,816). The new suits are closely related to those previous filings, asserting the same seven patents along with an eighth patent, owned by DDG, that relates to a backlight system (7,914,196). Defendants Amazon, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Pantech, Sony, and VIZIO all make products using displays that are alleged to infringe the patents-in-suit, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The litigated patents were previously owned by Rambus and transferred to Acacia in March 2013. The seven previously asserted patents are owned by IDT but DDG owns the ‘196 patent, according to the complaints. 12/31, District of Delaware, 1:13cv02106, 1:13cv02107, 1:13cv02108, 1:13cv02109, 1:13cv02110, 1:13cv02111, 1:13cv02112