RPX completed a number of deals in March 2020 on behalf of its patent risk management network. The acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: E-Commerce and Software; Mobile Communications and Devices; Networking; and Semiconductors.

As reported repeatedly by RPX over the past year, Acacia Research Corporation’s litigation efforts are picking back up following a comprehensive leadership change triggered by activist investors in 2018. While Acacia’s freshly reconstituted board is reportedly working to “advance” the company’s IP business (including through augmenting Acacia’s IP portfolio through “acquisitions and partnerships”), USPTO records suggest that the NPE already has at least one new litigation campaign in the pipeline, perhaps involving patents originating with Fairchild Semiconductor or Micron. Meanwhile, this week saw Acacia—via a newly created subsidiary, Targeted Radio LLC—kick off its first new US campaign in four years with a suit against Pandora Media. The new suit against Pandora joins a number of recently filed cases in already existing Acacia campaigns, including one initiated over ten years ago.

Last year, activist investors Sidus Investment Management and BLR Partners LP triggered a sweeping leadership change at Acacia Research Corporation. The overhaul of Acacia’s executive leadership is now apparently nearing completion, with a freshly reconstituted board of directors and the recent appointment of Clifford Press (cofounder of the investment company Hyde Park Holdings) as CEO and Alfred Tobia Jr. (cofounder of Sidus Investment Management) as CIO. Meanwhile, Acacia’s board is reportedly working to “advance” the company’s IP business, with the NPE in the midst of somewhat of a litigation revival in the wake of last year’s shake-up.

Teleconference Systems LLC, a subsidiary of publicly traded NPE Acacia Research Corporation, has kept its long-running videoconferencing campaign alive with a new lawsuit against Oracle (2:19-cv-00308) in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff accuses Oracle of infringement through the provision of certain session border controllers, including its Acme Packet 3820/4500/4600/6100/6300/6350 Service Provider Platforms, the Oracle Unified Session Manager, and the Oracle Mobile Security Gateway. Teleconference Systems—as their exclusive licensee—asserts five patents from a family of six, omitting only the earliest member, which the NPE asserted against a slew of Cisco’s TelePresence customers to kick off this campaign back in 2009.