During the first week of October 2016, Anton Innovations Inc., a subsidiary of Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), filed its first patent suit, effectively taking over a campaign initiated by another NPE (MLR, LLC) that has hit more than 20 electronics makers to date. Anton sued MiTAC (Getac) (8:16-cv-01850) on October 6 over four wireless communication patents (5,854,985; 6,134,453; 6,934,558; 7,386,322), accusing the company of infringement through the provision of notebooks and tablets that contain multi-modal wireless transceivers. Also on October 6, apparent WiLAN affiliate Atlas IP, LLC  added two new defendants to its smart energy grid campaign, suing Master Meter (6:16-cv-01214) and Mueller Systems (6:16-cv-01213) for alleged infringement of an expired wireless communication patent (5,371,734). These latest suits bring Atlas IP’s campaign defendant count to 13.

Despite multiple setbacks, Atlas IP, LLC has continued the second generation of its sole litigation campaign, which had targeted medical devices but has now moved on to smart energy grids. A single, expired, wireless communications patent (5,371,734) is at issue. The newest complaints name CenterPoint Energy (6:16-cv-00396) and Texas Energy Future Holdings (Oncor Electric Delivery) (6:16-cv-00397). Prior energy grid defendants include the City of Naperville, DTE Energy, Exelon, and PG&E, each of which was sued in the last couple of months of 2015.