In September 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw more than ten petitions filed in NPE campaigns involving networking and related technologies such as cybersecurity, including those waged by publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc.; prolific private litigant Realtime Data LLC; and Oyster Optics, LLC. Trial was instituted in September for an inter partes review (IPR) against Finjan and in IPRs against other frequent plaintiffs, including MyMail, Ltd. and Sound View Innovations, LLC. The Board issued final decisions in two covered business method (CBM) reviews against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, the first AIA reviews against the NPE to reach final decisions since March 2016, and only the fourth to date. The PTAB also issued final decisions in IPRs against publicly traded Document Security Systems, Inc. as well as Acceleration Bay, LLC; Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC; and Personalized Media Communications, LLC; among other NPEs.

Inventor-controlled Alex is the Best, LLC (AITB) has reignited its sole litigation campaign, begun in October 2013, with new lawsuits against BLU Products (1:16-cv-00769), Huawei (1:16-cv-00770), Lenovo (1:16-cv-00771), and TCT Mobile (1:16-cv-00772). The patents-in-campaign comprise a seven-member family (7,633,524; 7,907,172; 8,134,600; 8,477,197; 8,581,991; 8,947,542; 9,197,806) generally related to an Internet-connected device with an integrated system for capturing still or video images, as well as storing and managing those images. The defendants’ mobile devices are the accused products.

Alex is the Best, LLC (AITB) launched its sole litigation campaign this week with seven filings against makers of mobile devices. The defendants, Amazon (1:13-cv-01722), ASUS (1:13-cv-01723), BlackBerry (1:13-cv-01724), HTC (1:13-cv-01725), LG Electronics (1:13-cv-01726), Sony (1:13-cv-01727), and ZTE (1:13-cv-01728), all make smartphones or tablets that are accused of infringing two patents. The patents-in-suit have a 2005 priority and relate to the transfer of still images or video from or to an Internet-connected device (8,134,600; 8,477,197). The asserted patents were assigned to AITB by the inventors in April 2011 and have not been involved in any previous litigation. 10/18, District of Delaware.