Throughout May 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw activity in multiple long-running campaigns, including challenges brought against patents and plaintiffs with colorful and tangled litigation histories. The Board saw petitions for AIA review brought in May against Publishing Technologies LLC, an NPE controlled by patent attorney and frequent litigant Bradley D. Liddle; in the mobile devices campaign waged by AGIS Software Development LLC; and in the networking campaign brought by XR Communications, LLC. Also in May, the Board instituted trial for inter partes reviews (IPRs) against Iridescent Networks, Inc. and Oyster Optics, LLC. Final decisions issued in May include three against prolific plaintiff Realtime Data LLC, which saw claims cancelled from one of its data compression patents while another two survived unscathed, as well as final decisions cancelling claims from patents held by General Patent Corporation and VirnetX Holding Corporation.

RPX noted among the assignment records released during the third week of October patent transfers to two affiliates of IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal)—one that launched a litigation campaign during the first half of this month, and one that may be poised to take over an IPVal campaign begun earlier this year. Also of note is an assignment to a new NPE managed by Bradley D. Liddle and a security agreement between Brian Yates and an investment manager.

Publishing Technologies LLC, an NPE formed this summer and managed by Bradley D. Liddle, has launched its first litigation campaign. On October 25, Publishing Technologies filed one suit each in the Eastern District of Texas against Bank of America (6:17-cv-00610), Capital One (6:17-cv-00608), Charles Schwab (6:17-cv-00611), Fidelity (6:17-cv-00609), and TD Ameritrade (6:17-cv-00612), accusing the defendants’ online trading platforms of infringing a single patent generally concerning information content management in network-based communication systems. The patent-in-suit has been previously asserted in litigation by another NPE, Wireless Ink Corporation (which also has ties to Liddle), in a mobile website campaign that ended in September 2015.

Codec Technologies LLC has filed ten new suits in its sole litigation campaign against Craig Electronics (2:16-cv-01426), Curtis (2:16-cv-01436), Datawind (2:16-cv-01437), Global Phoenix Computer Technologies Solutions (2:16-cv-01432), Naxa Electronics (2:16-cv-01428), Pivos Technology Group (2:16-cv-01427), PLR IP Holdings (2:16-cv-01435), RSPA (d/b/a Sungale) (2:16-cv-01429), Voxx Electronics (2:16-cv-01430), and Vulcan Electronics (2:16-cv-01431). The new complaints allege that tablets made and sold by each defendant infringe a single patent (6,825,780) generally related to data compression using multiple encoders on a single integrated circuit.

Recently formed Texas NPE Paluxy Messaging, LLC has initiated a first litigation campaign with new cases filed against 8×8 (6:16-cv-01346), Longview Cable Television (6:16-cv-01345), Nextiva (6:16-cv-01348), and ShoreTel (6:16-cv-01350). Paluxy asserts a single patent (8,411,829) generally related to a messaging system that separately transmits copies of recorded messages. The NPE accuses the defendants of infringement through provision of their voicemail services. The ‘829 patent has five named inventors, one of whom, James D. Logan, is a prolific inventor whose patents have been the subject of high-profile past litigation, including the long-running Personal Audio LLC campaign. Public filings in connection with an appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court from Logan’s divorce decree indicate that his now second ex-wife, Caren, has been awarded, through a separate patent stipulation, a percentage interest in Logan’s patent holdings through the companies that own them.