According to recently released USPTO data, in early May, France Brevets SAS assigned over 90 US patents to a new Delaware NPE. The transacted portfolio was developed by STMicro, which late last year assigned dozens of patents to Bell Semiconductor, LLC (Bell Semic), a Hilco Inc. (d/b/a Hilco Global) NPE currently litigating patents received from Broadcom.

Former drone-maker QFO Labs, Inc. has announced that it will shift from product manufacturing to patent licensing, filing suit against Amazon (0:17-cv-05014), Best Buy (0:17-cv-05011), and Target (0:17-cv-05012) in the process. The complaints allege infringement of three patents through the provision of various drones made by Parrot along with related mobile apps that use a smartphone’s orientation sensor to control the drones. Parrot has been engaged in litigation with QFO Labs since August of last year following the termination of a partnership between the plaintiff and retailer Brookstone, which once sold QFO Labs’ drones but dropped them in favor of Parrot’s in 2014.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the second half of August, of transfers to several frequent plaintiffs in litigation, including affiliates of Leigh M. Rothschild, IP Edge LLC, and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC.

During the second half of August 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. The assignees were Virtual Immersion Technologies LLC (controlled by Erik Stamell, of Equitable IP Corporation); Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC (a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC); an NPE created by IP Valuation Partners LLC; and subsidiaries of two publicly traded NPEs—Wi-LAN, Inc. and Pendrell Corporation.

In the first half of August 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. Assignees include IP Valuation Partners LLC—affiliates of which have collectively filed nearly 50 patent infringement suits to date—and France Brevets. Also, a newly formed NPE controlled by the manager of Multiplayer Network Innovations, LLC, which in 2014-2015 sued over 25 operating companies, received a patent from Rovi Corporation.

In the second half of July 2016, RPX saw 13 patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. A number of those transactions involved patents that have already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.

In the second half of June 2016, RPX saw over 20 patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. A number of those transactions involved patents that have been asserted in litigation against operating companies—some as recently as this past week.

In the first half of November 2015, RPX saw six patent transfers to NPEs recorded by the USPTO. Two of those recently recorded transactions involve patents that have been previously asserted in litigation against operating companies.

In the first half of October 2015, RPX saw eleven patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO.

NFC Technology, LLC, a subsidiary of France Brevets, filed its second patent assertion suit against Samsung. The suit asserts four patents, two of which have not been used in previous litigation. (6,700,551, 7,098,770, 7,665,664, 7,905,419). The patents-in-suit relate to inductive coupling for wireless applications used in near-field communication (NFC), and Samsung’s NFC capable mobile devices are accused of infringement. These four patents are the only ones owned by NFC according to USPTO records.