As extensively reported by RPX, the acquisition and assertion of operating company patents by NPEs remained a significant driver of litigation throughout 2020. Be prepared for this long-term trend to possibly accelerate as a result of the COVID-19 recession. If past is prologue, the current financial crisis will likely be followed by years of increased patent divestments by operating companies—including to NPEs.

Glocom, Inc. subsidiary SIPCO LLC has filed suit in the Eastern District of Texas against CommScope (Arris, Ruckus Wireless) (5:20-cv-00168) over the provision of Internet of Things (IoT) access points and gateways that use the ZigBee mesh networking standard as well as wireless access points that can send emergency notifications over cellular networks. The plaintiff asserts five patents in the complaint, managing to add two new ones to the group of now 30-plus patents-in-suit, in one of the longest-running campaigns, alive since 2005, one of those new patents recently sourced from Pantech.

Last week, RPX reported a recent assignment from Pantech to SIPCO LLC, an NPE that has hit roughly 80 defendants through its networking campaign. Now, USPTO records have revealed a second late-May divestiture by Pantech, this one to Helios Streaming, LLC—an NPE with an ongoing media streaming campaign asserting former Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) patents. Both Helios Streaming and SIPCO appear to be among a group of NPEs enforcing a set of “licensing programs” under the umbrella of Korean patent monetization firm Ideahub, Inc.

An assignment from Pantech to SIPCO LLC—a Glocom, Inc. NPE that has hit roughly 80 defendants through its networking campaign—is among the patent transactions recently made public by the USPTO, as are assignments by Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. Ltd (CSOT) and TCL to a subsidiary of the patent monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC.

SIPCO LLC has added an April case against HP Enterprise (Aruba Networks) (1:20-cv-00537) to the two suits that it filed in March 2020, one against each of D-Link (8:20-cv-00595) and TP-Link (8:20-cv-00543). Aruba Networks is accused of infringing multiple patents through the provision of various networking products (e.g., access points, gateways, and mesh networking solutions) that use the Bluetooth 5 or Zigbee standards; D-Link and TP-Link, of infringing overlapping sets of patents through the provision of smart home routers, controllers, and sensors that use the Z-Wave or ZigBee mesh networking standards. This campaign has been running continuously since 2005, albeit with a change of ownership in the beginning of 2018.

GE Embedded Electronics (f/k/a Imbera Electronics), a company that GE acquired in 2013, has offloaded the bulk of its US patent portfolio, in two recorded assignments of roughly 25 US assets each. At the time of its acquisition, GE Embedded Electronics was described as “a pioneering Finnish company that has spent over 10 years developing advanced embedded electronics packaging technology and manufacturing solutions”. The 50 plus patent assets recently transferred generally relate to those fields of technology, with connections of the recipient suggesting that future assertion is not out of the question.

The Federal Circuit has partially reversed and remanded a ruling by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that a device monitoring patent asserted by SIPCO LLC was eligible for covered business method (CBM) review, which led to a January 2018 final decision cancelling claims from the patent under Alice and Section 103. Ruling on September 25, a Federal Circuit majority held that the Board had relied upon an improper claim construction for its determination that the patent does not fall within an exception excluding patents that “solve . . . a technical problem using a technical solution” from CBM review (2018-1635). Inventor-controlled SIPCO has seen multiple changes in corporate ownership since the 2005 launch of its litigation campaign, including the publicly announced 2012 acquisition of part ownership stakes by General Electric and MPEG LA. A more recent change in ownership came with less fanfare: In early 2018, SIPCO disclosed in public filings that it is now wholly owned by Glocom, Inc., a Maryland company apparently led by the CEO of Korean patent monetization firm Ideahub, Inc., the latter of which has touted an investment in SIPCO. Ideahub has also just launched a push into US courts in its own right, cofiling litigation with new NPE plaintiff Helios Streaming, LLC.

SIPCO LLC, a Georgia-based NPE co-founded by inventor T. David Petite, has added Kapsch TrafficCom and its subsidiary Streetline (1:16-cv-00830) to its mesh networking campaign. Along with related co-plaintiff IP Co., LLC (d/b/a IntusIQ), SIPCO accuses the two companies of infringing ten patents (6,249,516; 6,437,692; 6,914,893; 7,103,511; 7,468,661; 7,697,492; 8,223,010; 8,233,471; 8,625,496; 8,908,842) generally related to monitoring and controlling electronic devices. The defendants are alleged to infringe the patents-in-suit through the use of Streetline’s smart parking monitoring hardware in conjunction with Kapsch’s parking management software and services.

Sipco [NPE] filed suit against Control4 over three patents related to wireless home automation, 2/28, 1:2011cv00612. Cisco and Control4 announced a strategic partnership on February 15. SIPCO has filed nine prior suits against approximately 40 defendants. The inventor of the patents and principal at SIPCO, T. David Petite, is the founder of the Native American Inventors Association and a member of the Professional Awards Selection Committee of the American Indian Science Engineering Society.

SIPCO filed suit against Abb, Coulomb, and eight others over three patents related to wireless network technology for home automation, energy monitoring and remote charging, 1/31, # 7103511 6437692 7697492, 6:11cv48