Earlier this year, the final dust settled on 2013 cases that Parallel Networks Licensing, LLC filed against IBM and Microsoft, after the Federal Circuit ruled on an appeal from an award of costs to Microsoft (20-1669). Now, litigation has ginned back up, the plaintiff suing Arrow Electronics (4:21-cv-00714) in the Eastern District of Texas and Artisan Infrastructure (6:21-cv-00951), SHI International (6:21-cv-00953), and Transtelco (Neutrona Networks International) (6:21-cv-00952) in the Western District, alleging infringement of the same two dynamic webpage creation patents that have been in suit in this campaign since 2005. At issue in these latest complaints is the use of various hardware and software products (i.e., Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs), load balancers, firewalls, and router management software, respectively) that feature a “least-connected load balancing” mode—products provided by nonparties A10 Networks (as to Arrow), Kemp Technologies (Artisan), Barracuda Networks (SHI), and Juniper Networks (Neutrona).

Parallel Networks LLC has infused the largest of its five litigation campaigns with fresh life, transferring the sole patent-in-suit to a managed subsidiary, Dynamic Applet Technologies, LLC, for assertion in new cases filed against Haverty Furniture (4:17-cv-00861), Mattress Firm and Sleepy’s (4:17-cv-00860), Petsmart (4:17-cv-00861), and Urban Outfitters (4:17-cv-00862). The patent generally relates to client-server communications, with the defendants accused of infringement through the operation of their retail websites. Parallel Networks asserted the same patent against over 120 different companies, beginning in 2009; just last month, one of several appeals to the Federal Circuit finally ended the last open litigation.

A Delaware jury has returned a noninfringement verdict for Microsoft (1:13-cv-02073) in a long-running campaign waged by Parallel Networks Licensing LLC and related entities. On March 11, the jury found that Microsoft had not infringed two patents (5,894,554; 6,415,335) generally related to dynamic webpage creation through various server and web hosting products. That finding comes less than a month after a victory in this campaign for IBM (1:13-cv-02072), which on April 27 was dismissed after winning summary judgment of no direct or indirect infringement of the same two patents.