The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw the number of petitions for AIA review in November hold fairly steady at 111 (compared to October’s 128) as the US Supreme Court continued its review of the constitutionality of inter partes review (IPR) in Oil States v. Greene’s Energy Services, for which oral arguments were held on November 27. Among the NPEs targeted by petitions brought in November were publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. and Xperi Corporation, prolific litigant Brian Yates, and several privately held NPEs waging networking campaigns, including Alacritech, Inc.; Iridescent Networks, Inc.; Monument Patent Holdings, LLC; MyMail Ltd.; and Oyster Optics LLC. The PTAB also instituted trial in November for other IPRs against Alacritech and Quarterhill and for an IPR against Plectrum LLC. Final decisions issued by the Board in November include one in the automotive campaign waged by Paice LLC and in IPRs against InfoGation Corporation and VoIP-Pal.com, Inc., both of which saw their patents survive review.

In October 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against a variety of frequent litigants, including publicly traded NPEs Acacia Research Corporation and Xperi Corporation, as well as privately held Monument Patent Holdings, LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. The Board also instituted trial in October for IPRs against multiple Acacia subsidiaries, Uniloc, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg. In addition, the PTAB issued an IPR final decision cancelling multiple claims from a data compression patent held by prolific plaintiff Realtime Data LLC, including the single claim that Riverbed Technology (one of the petitioners for the IPR) was found to infringe in a $4.3M verdict in May, with other final decisions issued in campaigns waged by TQ Delta LLC and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. IPRs against IP Bridge, Inc. and Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC also ended in termination in October after the patent owners requested adverse judgments.

Publicly traded Xperi Corporation disclosed on October 11 that a German court has issued a tentative invalidity ruling against a semiconductor patent that the NPE has asserted against Broadcom and Avago. On October 5, the Federal Patent Court held that the patent at issue “may be invalid for various reasons” in a nullity, or invalidity, action filed by Avago (2 Ni 43/16), leading Xperi to delay the enforcement of an infringement ruling for that patent issued against Broadcom and Avago in March, with that litigation brought by several plaintiff entities under Xperi’s Tessera and Invensas brands. The same patent is also at issue in another Invensas lawsuit filed against Samsung on September 28. Meanwhile, available litigation records also indicate that nullity actions filed by Haier and ZTE are proceeding in a campaign waged by patent licensing firm Sisvel International S.A. over a portfolio of allegedly standard essential wireless patents, following a recent setback for the NPE in its parallel infringement suit against ZTE.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see petitions for AIA review filed against prolific litigants in July, including a wave of petitions against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited across four separate campaigns, with petitions also brought against General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, and Quarterhill Inc. Meanwhile, throughout July, the Board instituted trial for inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed in semiconductor campaigns waged by Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, with trial also instituted in campaigns related to network data compression (Realtime Data LLC), servers and data management (IV), and anti-malware technology (Finjan Holdings, Inc.). Final decisions issued by the Board in July included one that cancelled claims from a patent that has been asserted by Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC, an NPE controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, against more than 60 defendants.

Recent European litigation activity has included several developments in German cases brought by subsidiaries of American NPEs, with a stay entered in two lawsuits brought by ParkerVision, Inc. and the affirmance of an injunction for Xperi Corporation. Meanwhile, plaintiffs originating in Europe have varied widely in size, financial resources, and level of activity, with one of Europe’s most persistent litigants (IPCom GmbH & Co KG) backed by financing from the US-based Fortress Investment Group LLC.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitions for AIA review filed against a variety of prolific litigants in June 2017, including General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.), Realtime Data LLC, Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation). Also in June, the PTAB instituted trial for petitions brought against patents asserted in a variety of sprawling campaigns, including some waged by Acacia Research Corporation, IV, Papst Licensing, Quarterhill, and VirnetX Inc. The Board further issued final decisions throughout June in AIA reviews against patents involved in several notable campaigns, including some waged by Document Security Systems, Inc., Elm 3DS Innovations LLC, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw 54 petitions for AIA review brought against NPEs in May, up from 20 such petitions filed in April. May PTAB filings included a resurgence in petitions against publicly traded NPEs, including Acacia Research Corporation; Pendrell Corporation; Quest Patent Research Corporation; VoIP-Pal.com, Inc.; Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) (which was renamed to Quarterhill Inc. on June 1). A variety of private litigants were also hit by PTAB petitions in May, including Blackbird Tech LLC, Global Equity Management (SA) Pty. Ltd., General Patent Corporation, Realtime Data LLC, and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited.

Invensas Corporation, a subsidiary of publicly traded Xperi Corporation, announced on March 20 that a German court has issued infringement rulings in two of the NPE’s cases against Broadcom (7 O 97/16, 7 O 98/16). On March 17, the District Court of Mannheim reportedly held that Broadcom and German distributors Arrow Central Europe, EBV Elektronik, and Mouser Electronics infringe the German designation of European patent EP 1 186 034 B1 through the provision of products incorporating certain Broadcom chips. The two judgments purportedly included injunctive relief.

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.

Publicly traded NPE Tessera Technologies, Inc. has filed two new district court suits against Broadcom subsidiary Avago. On November 8, Tessera, Inc. and Invensas Corporation sued the company over two semiconductor patents not previously seen in litigation (6,573,609; 6,972,480) (1:16-cv-01034). That same day, Invensas filed a second complaint against Avago (1:16-cv-01033), this time asserting a pair of patents (6,133,136; 6,849,946) that are currently at issue in a litigation campaign involving Broadcom, Arista, ASUS, Comcast, HTC, NETGEAR, and others. Just as Tessera’s last wave of litigation, filed in May of this year, followed a disappointing financial quarter (see here), the NPE’s latest filings came a week after Tessera announced a decline in its third quarter revenue.