RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first half of March, of the transfer of one set of patents to Fortress Investment Group LLC, after the NPE assignor’s default on a prior financing agreement. Fortress intervened in the campaign asserting some of those patents, bringing the litigation to a relatively rapid close. RPX also took notice of the transfer of patents from multiple assignors to another entity, Knapp Investment Company Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity that has never filed suit. The records made available in early March also contain transfers to frequent plaintiffs, including affiliates of patent monetization firms IP Valuation Partners LLC and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, as well as Blackbird Tech LLC and Empire IP LLC.

VStream Technologies LLC has filed its first new suits in over a year, this time against BlackBerry and Motorola Mobility (6:15-cv-00976), C&A Marketing Inc., Contour, Drift Innovation, and PLR IP Holdings (6:15-cv-00974), and Ricoh (6:15-cv-00977). The NPE initiated its sole litigation campaign in April 2014 with two separate suits against two groups of defendants: LG, Nokia, Pantech, Samsung, Sony, and ZTE; and iOn America, GoPro, Woodman Labs, and World Wide Licenses. As in its previous cases, this week’s filings assert five patents that generally relate to video compression and decompression technology (6,690,731; 6,850,647; 7,489,824; 7,627,183; 8,179,971). VStream’s infringement allegations focus on BlackBerry’s and Motorola’s smartphones and the other defendants’ video cameras.

The first two patent infringement lawsuits filed by new NPE VStream Technologies target 10 manufacturers of mobile handsets and other consumer electronics products. The five patents-in-suit are generally related to video compression and decompression technology  (6,690,731, 8,179,971, 6,850,647, 7,489,824, 7,627,183). VStream’s complaint against LG, Nokia, Pantech, Samsung, Sony, and ZTE accuses defendants’ smartphones, digital cameras, televisions, Blu-ray players, and video cameras. The suit also accuses image processing integrated circuits used in Sony and Samsung products. In a second suit against iOn America, GoPro, Woodman Labs, and World Wide Licenses, VStream accuses defendants’ digital video cameras of infringing the asserted patents. The patents originated with Neostar and were assigned to Medici Portfolio Acquisition in February 2013 and to plaintiff entity VStream in August 2013. In April 2014, VStream assigned a security interest in the patents to Fortress Credit. RPX reviewed the patents as an open market opportunity in 2010 (Hickman Video – Acq). 4/23, Texas Eastern District Court, 6:14cv00296, 6:14cv00298