Last October, ASUS Technology Licensing Inc. (ATL, an ASUSTek subsidiary, as patent owner) and Celerity IP, LLC (as exclusive licensee) filed two trios of lawsuits against AT&T (AT&T Mobility), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless), in which Ericsson and Nokia have since intervened. As discovery motions fly, Ericsson has filed an amended answer to include a counterclaim for “breach of obligation to negotiate in good faith”—which the patentholder-side plaintiffs have moved to dismiss (or sever)—and those plaintiffs have filed a Texas state court action pleading claims for tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective business relations, and unfair competition—which the defendants have removed to the Northern District of Texas (3:24-cv-02092). The crux of these new claims appears to be Ericsson’s attempt to end its portion of this dispute through an offered “cross-license” between it and ASUS.

Celerity IP, LLC and Innovative Sonic Limited have filed a second Eastern District of Texas complaint against LG Electronics (LGE) (2:24-cv-00132). In the first, the plaintiff pair asserted five wireless communications patents, adding another five to the litigation through the new suit, filed by new counsel Winstead PC. The basics are also in flux as to the litigation filed by Celerity IP—in a trio of suits cofiled with Innovative Sonic and in a second trio with ASUS Technology Licensing Inc. (ATL, an ASUSTek subsidiary)—against AT&T (AT&T Mobility), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless). More patents have been added there, through amended complaints, and third parties Ericsson and Nokia have filed sealed, opposed motions to intervene.

Publicly traded litigation finance firm Omni Bridgeway announced this week that it had completed the sale of a 25% interest in a portfolio of 15 IP investments to another litigation funder, GLS Capital. While this type of deal is not entirely novel—e.g., Gerchen Capital Partners raised a $750M fund focused on buying positions in existing legal investments—the Omni Bridgeway-GLS transaction is particularly notable in light of the funders’ prominent positions in the patent monetization space.

In November 2021, litigation finance firm GLS Capital announced that its subsidiary Celerity IP, LLC—characterized as an IP management company and led by patent monetization veterans Chad Hilyard and Tim Berghuis—“entered into agreements to be the exclusive agent for the licensing and enforcement of two separate portfolios of standard essential patents”, one originating with ASUSTek and the other, Innovative Sonic Limited. This past week, Celerity IP (as exclusive licensee) filed separate trios of Eastern District of Texas suits against AT&T (AT&T Mobility), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless), one trio with ASUS (2:23-cv-00486, 2:23-cv-00487, 2:23-cv-00488, respectively) and the other with Innovative Sonic (2:23-cv-00489, 2:23-cv-00490, 2:23-cv-00491, respectively).

Celerity IP, LLC, a subsidiary of litigation finance firm GLS Capital, has begun its second litigation effort (as “exclusive licensee”) since becoming the “exclusive agent for the licensing and enforcement of” two portfolios of standard essential patents originating with ASUSTek (ASUS) or Innovative Sonic Limited. Together with ASUS Technology Licensing Inc. (as patent owner)—formed to continue “ASUSTek’s long history of development in and contributions to the field of wireless communications”—the plaintiffs have sued Samsung (2:23-cv-00409) in the Eastern District of Texas over a single wireless communications patent, targeting the provision of devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and smart watches) that are compliant with 4G and/or 5G networking standards.

Celerity IP, LLC (as “exclusive licensing agent”), a subsidiary of litigation finance firm GLS Capital, and Innovative Sonic Limited (as “assignee of the Asserted Patents”) have together filed suit against LG Electronics (LGE) (2:23-cv-00316) in the Eastern District of Texas. The coplaintiffs describe the five asserted wireless communications patents as generally related to “various functional operations of 4G-compliant devices that allow the devices to operate within a 4G network and allows users to communicate over 4G network”. LGE is targeted over the provision of certain devices compliant with the 4G/LTE standard.