As reported by RPX earlier this year, prolific NPE IP Edge LLC picked up a portfolio of patent assets from Huawei in February 2019. In the past three months, the Texas-based monetization firm has farmed out some of the former Huawei patents to newly created entities in that state, several of which—Bexley Solutions LLC; Devine Licensing LLC; Saros Licensing LLC; and Theta Chip LLC—have since begun litigating them. Public records indicate that more litigation stemming from that February transaction is likely coming soon.

An individual inventor has filed suit against Apple, Huawei, and TSMC, alleging that the three companies have infringed four patents (6,518,668; 6,924,226; 7,199,052; 7,282,445) generally related to semiconductor fabrication (1:17-cv-00189). In a single complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas, plaintiff Uri Cohen accuses TSMC of infringement for manufacturing certain mobile Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) for Apple and Huawei using its 16nm and 20nm processes, with Apple and Huawei alleged to infringe through the provision of smartphones incorporating those SoCs.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board saw the filing of petitions against a host of publicly traded NPEs in February, including Acacia Research Corporation, Pendrell Corporation, Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation), with challenges also filed in campaigns waged by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV); IP Bridge, Inc.; Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited; and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC.

November 11, 2010- Rembrandt Data Storage, an affiliate of NPE Rembrandt IP, filed complaints against Seagate Technology and Western Digital for alleged infringement of two patents related to thin film head technology for disk drives. An article in eWeek notes, “Rembrandt has not specified how much they are looking for in damages, except that it should be a ‘reasonable royalty’. The hard drive industry is about $12 billion a year, and these are two of the largest vendors in the market.” The two patents-in-suit were assigned to Rembrandt Data Storage in July 2010.