This summer, NorthStar Systems LLC has added four defendants to what has become its sole litigation campaign, suing HP (2:22-cv-00265), Lenovo (2:22-cv-00267), Mercedes-Benz (2:22-cv-00323), and NEC (2:22-cv-00324), each in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff received more than three dozen US patents, many of them expired, from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in April 2019, launching litigation in late 2020 that has now hit more than 20 defendants with overlapping subsets of 20 of those patents. NorthStar Systems has targeted a wide variety of products (e.g., in-vehicle infotainment systems, personalized advertising, laptops and mobile computing devices, etc.), most deploying location-based technology or tracking. IV appears to retain an interest in the outcome of this litigation.

Panasonic (2:22-cv-00183) is the latest defendant to be added to the litigation campaign that NorthStar Systems LLC launched in September 2020 with a suit against Macy’s. In its latest complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the NPE targets the provision of products for asset tracking and supply chain management, as well as ruggedized laptops with asset tracking systems, digital marketing programs, and personalized advertisement technology.

NorthStar Systems LLC has added new defendants to each of the campaigns that it began in late 2020, both over separate subsets of patents from a portfolio received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in December 2019. The September campaign had been targeting retailers over the provision of RFID asset tracking systems deployed throughout their locations, the newest case there hitting Best Buy (2:22-cv-00138) in the Eastern District of Texas over such a system; however, NorthStar has alleged infringement of two additional patents, expanding the scope of that litigation. In its December campaign, NorthStar has added suits in the same district against Broadcom (2:22-cv-00144), Honda (2:22-cv-00143), MediaTek (2:22-cv-00135), and Xiaomi (2:22-cv-00139), again focusing in this litigation on various features related to GPS location and navigation, as provided by certain chips, devices, and/or vehicles.

In late December, NorthStar Systems LLC expanded its first litigation campaign, begun in September 2020, with suits against H&M (2:20-cv-00407), Kohl’s (2:20-cv-00404), Lululemon (2:20-cv-00403), Target (2:20-cv-00405), and Walmart (2:20-cv-00406) in the Eastern District of Texas. The three patents-in-suit, received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in two December 2019 assignments, generally relate to a system for tracking an inventory of physical assets equipped with communication devices. The defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of RFID asset tracking systems deployed throughout their locations.

NorthStar Systems LLC has kicked off a second litigation campaign, accusing BBK Electronics (Shenzhen OnePlus Science & Technology) (2:20-cv-00385), Kyocera (2:20-cv-00384), TCL (TCT Mobile) (2:20-cv-00383), and ZTE (2:20-cv-00386) of infringing eight patents that the NPE received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in two assignments dated December 30, 2019. The asserted patents generally relate to various aspects of GPS location and navigation, including related features like a “privacy” mode, selective transmission of location data, the storage and management of location data, and the use of location data in social networks. Various Android smartphones and/or tablets, having features related to GPS location and navigation, are the accused products.

Longhorn HD LLC has launched a third litigation campaign, suing Samsung (2:20-cv-00350) in the Eastern District of Texas over a single patent, acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) and generally related to an “information backup system”. The NPE targets Samsung over the provision of smartphones that support Smart Switch, a technology for “seamlessly” upgrading from one model to another. Concurrently, Longhorn HD has added three new defendants to its existing network security campaign, hitting Mitel Networks (Mitel Software Technologies) (2:20-cv-00350), NetScout Systems (2:20-cv-00349), and Trend Micro (2:20-cv-00348), also in East Texas, over a variety of networking hardware and software products.

“Elite Gaming Technology, LLC” (EGT) has launched a new litigation campaign over patents apparently acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), suing ASUSTek (2:20-cv-00059), Micro-Star International (MSI) (2:20-cv-00062), and Pegatron (ASRock) (2:20-cv-00060) in the Eastern District of Texas. The six patents asserted, of disparate origins, generally relate to computer hardware, with infringement allegations focused on long lists of computing devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.), some based on their inclusion of Intel chipsets or hard disk drives supplied by Western Digital (directly, or by Hitachi Global Storage, which Western Digital acquired in 2012). EGT pleads that it is a Texas LLC at an address that suggests that its name is actually Elite Gaming Tech LLC, an NPE of familiar management.