Fall Line Patents, LLC, an NPE formed in Oklahoma this past January, has filed its first litigation, accusing American Airlines (6:17-cv-00204), Cinemark Holdings (6:17-cv-00204), and GrubHub (6:17-cv-00204) of infringing a single patent (9,454,748) generally related to managing user-provided data based on the user’s location. Mobile apps that transmit location-specific information are the focus of the NPE’s complaints. The ‘748 patent has not been asserted previously in litigation, but its earlier (and currently, its only) family member (7,822,816) has, in a somewhat storied campaign lasting from March 2011 to May 2014.

In response to a petition filed by RPX Corporation, the USPTO decided to institute an inter partes review (IPR) of 7,822,816, the only patent owned by MacroSolve, Inc. The patent, which originated with MacroSolve, relates to a wireless handheld data collection system that uses a questionnaire to prompt a user to input the desired data. RPX’s November 2013 petition requested that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) review all claims of the ‘816 patent. According to a decision issued last week, PTAB concluded that there is a reasonable likelihood that claims 1-14 of the ‘816 patent are unpatenable as obvious over prior art. The PTAB also rejected MacroSolve’s argument that RPX failed to identify all real parties-in-interest and held that “[m]ere membership in Petitioner RPX Corporation, however, does not demonstrate the requisite control over Petitioner by the alleged unnamed real parties-in-interest.” A scheduling order has set oral arguments in this trial for March 2015. The ‘816 patent is also the subject of an ex parte reexamination initiated by GEICO. The USPTO recently notified MacroSolve that it intends to issue a Reexamination Certificate canceling all claims pursuant to a March 7, 2014 rejection because MacroSolve failed to file a timely response.

MacroSolve filed ten separate suits against Costco, Fandango, Gamestop, Gilt Groupe, Kohl’s,  Kroger,  Nordstrom, Pandora, RueLaLa, and Staples, alleging that the defendants’ mobile applications infringe a patent (7,822,816) related to remote collection of survey or questionnaire form data.  The complaints allege that the defendants and their customers jointly infringe the patent-in-suit.  MacroSolve has filed more than 50 suits since March 2011 against over 75 defendants including American Express, AOL, AT&T, Bed Bath & Beyond, CitiGroup, CVS, Dell, Facebook, Groupon, Home Depot, Newegg,  Priceline,  Salesforce,  Travelocity,  Walmart, and Yelp.  The patent-in-suit was issued to MacroSolve by inventor David Payne in August 2003.  2/25, Eastern District of Texas, 6:13cv00198, 6:13cv00199, 6:13cv00200, 6:13cv00201, 6:13cv00202, 6:13cv00203; 2/26, Eastern District of Texas, 6:13cv00204, 6:13cv00205, 6:13cv00206, 6:13cv00207.