Stingray IP Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation, has filed an Eastern District of Texas suit against ASSA ABLOY (2:24-cv-00159), targeting the support of certain wireless communications standards (i.e., Wi-Fi and ZigBee) within a wide array of devices, including bridges, card readers, gateways, modules, and smart locks, as well as related software products. After multiple strategic shifts, Acacia—in partnership with its majority shareholder Starboard Value—now characterizes itself as “an opportunistic capital platform that purchases businesses based on the differentials between public and private market valuations” but maintains a legacy “Patent Licensing, Enforcement and Technologies Business” that has not “obtain[ed] control of any new patent portfolios” since 2021.

Acacia Research Corporation released its second quarter financials on August 16, reporting higher year-over-year licensing revenue and a number of settlements across multiple enforcement campaigns. While Acacia has completed fewer patent acquisitions so far this year (as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020), a Q2 transaction has already given way to a new litigation campaign, begun earlier this month.

Acacia Research Corporation released its Q2 2020 financials on August 10, reporting decreased revenue but an increase in balance sheet cash since the close of Q1. The publicly traded NPE’s supply of patents is also growing. Having acquired at least four new patent portfolios so far this year, including from Marconi and L3Harris, Acacia now holds over 5,000 US patent assets, according to USPTO records.

As predicted, the portfolio that Acacia Research Corporation acquired in February from Marconi, which Acacia quickly moved to a subsidiary, has spawned litigation. Unification Technologies LLC has sued Dell (6:20-cv-00499), HP (6:20-cv-00501), and Micron Technology (6:20-cv-00500) in separate Western District of Texas cases over three of the patents received from Marconi. The defendants are accused of infringing those patents, generally related to managing data stored on non-volatile storage media, over the provision of solid-state drive (SSD) devices.

Acacia Research Corporation formed at least two new Texas NPEs in April, according to that state’s public records. One of those recently created NPEs holds a portfolio of patents that originate with Panasonic and generally concern digital mapping. While Acacia has disclosed having acquired multiple patent portfolios this year—including two received from Marconi in February, one of which included patents developed by Samsung—it is not yet clear from whom Acacia received the former Panasonic patents.

Public records have identified Marconi as the source of at least some of the patents recently acquired by Acacia Research Corporation. The transacted portfolio, assigned in February to a newly created Acacia subsidiary, includes assets originating with Samsung as well as patents developed by Fusion-IO (which in 2014 was acquired by SanDisk for $1.1B).