International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA) has filed suit against ADTRAN (1:17-cv-00562), its third complaint brought this month after cases against Ericsson (1:17-cv-00507) and NTT (1:17-cv-00508). The NPE’s latest lawsuit accuses ADTRAN of infringing six former Nortel patents (5,959,990; 6,970,461; 7,274,704; 7,277,533; 7,478,167; RE40,999), two of which (the ‘704 and 533 patents) are here asserted for the first time. The company is alleged to infringe through the provision of various Ethernet switches, routers, and gateways; IP phones; and line cards; as well as through certain cloud management services. Meanwhile, ILEA dismissed its case against Ericsson without prejudice on May 11; that complaint accused the company infringing the ‘990 and ‘999 patents through various types of enterprise networking hardware.

International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA), an affiliate of Equitable IP Corporation, has added Nokia and subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent to its networking campaign, accusing the two companies of infringing five former Nortel patents (6,222,848; 6,578,086; 6,697,325; 7,158,515; RE40,999). At issue in the complaint are various types of enterprise-grade networking hardware offered by Alcatel-Lucent, including access multiplexers for DSL and fiber optic networks, routers, and switches (1:16-cv-01077). Nokia has already been dismissed without prejudice, on December 1, just over a week after the case was filed.

Nbit Communications Systems, LLC, an apparent affiliate of Equitable IP Corporation, has launched a new litigation campaign, asserting a single data transmission patent (6,311,239) against DPI (1:16-cv-01057), Fujitsu (1:16-cv-01058), Funai (1:16-cv-01059), and ViewSonic (1:16-cv-01060). At issue are a variety of products incorporating HDMI, with DPI alleged to infringe the ‘239 patent through the provision of home audio systems, standalone TVs, and TVs with built-in DVD players; Fujitsu, through laptops, displays, and hardware video encoders; Funai, through Blu-ray players, DVD and VCR recording devices, DVRs, and HDTVs; and ViewSonic, through displays, network media players, and projectors.

International License Exchange of America, LLC (ILEA), an entity apparently managed by Equitable IP Corporation subsidiary Equitable IP Holdings, LLC, has added DragonWave (1:16-cv-00797), Fortinet (1:16-cv-00795), and GTT Communications (1:16-cv-00796) to its new networking campaign. ILEA’s latest complaints assert the same former Nortel patent (RE40,999) as in all but one of its initial filings, which hit a host of cable and satellite companies (Cablevision, Echostar (Echostar Corp., Hughes), Frontier Communications, ViaSat) and telecommunications providers (SOFTBANK (Clearwire, Sprint) in mid-August. Cincinnati Bell, also targeted in that first round of lawsuits, is alleged to infringe two additional Nortel patents (6,970,461; 7,478,167) from different families, along with the ‘999 patent. As in those earlier suits, DragonWave, Fortinet, and GTT have been accused of infringement through the provision of various types of hardware and services related to enterprise networking and broadband.

Spherix Incorporated filed suit against Cisco and Verizon, accusing the companies’ routers and switches of infringing a group of patents related to virtual local area network (VLAN) tagging. Spherix alleges that the seven patents-in-suit are standard essential (5,959,990, 6,111,876, RE40999E1, RE44775E1, RE45065E1, RE45081E1, RE45095E1). Six of the patents originated with Nortel, the seventh with Bay Networks (which was acquired by Nortel in 1998).

Spherix continues to assert former Nortel patents, this time in a suit against Verizon. The four patents-in-suit, which have not previously been asserted by Spherix, relate to processing and prioritizing call requests, switching optical signals, translating messages between different types of devices, and providing communication across firewalls (6,507,648, 6,882,800, 6,980,564, 8,166,533). Spherix’s complaint alleges that Verizon’s software, switches, routers, and services infringe the asserted patents. The patents are part of the Nortel portfolio that was acquired by Rockstar Bidco in July 2011 and then transferred to Rockstar Consortium. Rockstar assigned the four patents to Spherix in February 2014. 6/11, Virginia Eastern District Court, 1:14cv00721

Spherix subsidiary NNPT recently filed its first litigation almost a year after its incorporation, asserting a group of five patents against Huawei. The patents-in-suit relate to various aspects of managing and directing communication over a network, including broadcasting signals, expediting communication, and efficiently routing information packets (6,130,877, 6,578,086, 6,697,325, 7,664,123, 8,607,323). Huawei’s routers and switches are accused of infringing the asserted patents. All five of the patents have been previously asserted by Spherix in at least one litigation.  They were assigned to Spherix by Rockstar Consortium and were part of the Nortel portfolio that Rockstar acquired in 2011.  6/9, Eastern District of Texas, 2:14cv00677

Spherix’s new suit continues to assert patents previously owned by Nortel, but the specific patents-in-suit were not asserted in prior litigation. Eleven patents are asserted against Cisco related to networking devices as well as control and management of voice and data communications through those devices (5,970,125, 6,130,877, 6,222,848, 6,578,086, 6,697,325, 6,807,174, 7,385,998, 7,397,763, 7,664,123, 8,607,323, RE40,467). In the complaint Cisco’s networking products, including routers, switches, networking software, and VOIP products, are accused of infringing the asserted patents. The patents are part of the portfolio acquired from Nortel by Rockstar Bidco in July 2011 and later transferred to subsidiary Rockstar Consortium. In July 2013 Rockstar became a shareholder of Spherix and at the same time transferred an undisclosed number of patents to the entity, including those asserted against Cisco. One month later Spherix began asserting former Nortel patents acquired from Rockstar, suing VTech and Uniden in suits that asserted a group of up to five patents. The Spherix campaign is defined by its assertion of former Nortel patents related to network communication, although the same patents are not involved in each suit. 3/24, District of Delaware, 1:14cv00374