Last month, Omega Patents, L.L.C. added a Middle District of Florida case against Verizon (Verizon Connect) (6:22-cv-02371) to its vehicle tracking campaign, alleging infringement of a single patent through the provision of its Hum-branded connected car systems. This suit follows an August 2022 case filed against GeoTab in the District of Delaware and since assigned to Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly, on August 17. Curiously, the parties to that litigation have yet to docket responses to Judge Connolly’s April 2022 standing orders imposing heightened disclosure requirements regarding party ownership and certain third-party litigation funding—even though the latter has a date-specific deadline for doing so and despite the “Series of Extraordinary Events” unfolding before Judge Connolly, raising the profile of those orders throughout this past fall.

The Federal Circuit has overturned part of a damages award in a long-running automotive dispute between Omega Patents LLC and CalAmp. On September 14, the appellate court held in a precedential opinion that the royalty of $5 per infringing device imposed by a Florida judge improperly lacked apportionment—partly because the plaintiff’s damages case failed to account for the “inventive aspects” of the patent at issue.

NPE litigation in the Automotive market sector during the first four months of 2020 was up nearly threefold from the same time period last year. Most recently, 21ST CENTURY GARAGE LLC and Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) have taken aim at companies operating in the sector, but the year so far has seen new campaigns launched by plaintiffs ranging from relatively recent entrants to patent monetization (e.g., Quartz Auto Technologies, LLC) to established players (e.g., Conversant Wireless Licensing, S.à.r.l.), as well as additional cases filed in existing campaigns waged by inventor-controlled Omega Patents, L.L.C. and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild. From wireless connectivity to more traditional automotive technologies, something about 2020 has drawn more litigation to the sector.

Last week, Omega Patents, L.L.C. filed suit against BMW (1:20-cv-01907) in the Northern District of Georgia. Technically, the new case is not part of Omega’s long-running first litigation campaign, begun in 2003, to which the inventor-controlled plaintiff added yet another case against DEI in late April, but the general subject matter is the same: the remote control of vehicles.

Omega Patents, L.L.C. has once again charged DEI Holdings (6:20-cv-00693) with patent infringement in the Middle District of Florida, asserting eight patents generally related to tracking or remotely controlling vehicles. The plaintiff pleads that DEI, “a former Licensee of a large number of Omega Patents . . . has advised Omega that it no longer considers the License Agreement to be valid, subsiding, or binding between the parties”. The disputes between these two parties are several, dating back to at least 1999, and this latest one comes as Omega Patents and CalAmp head back to the Federal Circuit after a retrial in the same district led to a jury verdict and subsequent judgment in Omega’s favor to the tune of $4.6M plus interest.

The Federal Circuit has reversed a $15M final judgment in an Omega Patents LLC suit against CalAmp, ordering a new trial for many of the issues addressed in a February 2016 willful infringement verdict (2018-1309). In a precedential opinion issued on April 8, the Federal Circuit affirmed the jury’s finding that the company had directly infringed a single claim from one patent but granted a new trial as to two other patents, also issuing a judgment of noninfringement for certain claims from one of those two patents. The appeals court also granted a retrial as to the infringement of two of the patents-in-suit by CalAmp’s customers. Additionally, the Federal Circuit ordered a new trial on inducement based on the prejudicial exclusion of testimony by a CalAmp executive and its outside counsel. The Federal Circuit further reversed and remanded as to the jury’s finding of willfulness and overturned the lower court’s enhanced damages award.

For the first half of February 2015, RPX saw nineteen transfers of patents to NPEs recorded with the USPTO.

Omega Patents filed suit against Enfora, a subsidiary of Novatel Wireless focused on the development of wireless networking solutions, alleging that the defendant’s mobile tracking devices infringe four patents (6,346,876, 7,671,727, 8,032,278 and 8,362,886) related to vehicle tracking and data bus technologies. Omega Patents has filed 12 prior suits since May 2003 against defendants that include Astroflex, AT Autosport, CalAmp, Fortin Audio Radio, General Motors, Lear, and Numerex. Omega Patents appears to be controlled by individual inventor Kenneth Flick. 2/28, Northern District of Georgia, 1:13cv00646.