Attaching an October 7, 2024 letter signed by Michelle Fisher as the CEO of Blaze Mobile Technologies LLC (BMT), Charles Schwab has asked the Northern District of California for declaratory judgments of noninfringement of three patents held by BMT (3:25-cv-02122). RPX has previously noted (see here and here) the flow of patents on which Fisher is a named inventor from Blaze Mobile, Inc.—a Delaware entity already embroiled in a declaratory judgment action filed against it by Samsung in California—to BMT, formed in Texas. Now, Charles Schwab pleads, on information and belief, that BMT “was formed as a conduit for asserting patent infringement claims in the Eastern District of Texas and in an attempt to avoid litigation” in the Northern District of California.

Recorded patent assignments recently made public reveal a new Texas entity operated by a familiar and funded monetization team picking up a semiconductor portfolio; a networking entity previously backed by Fortress Investment Group LLC moving a traffic management portfolio onto the market; an IoT provider transferring all of its US patent assets during a “controlled recapitalization”; a Texas entity tied to an now-established operation topping off a prior acquisition, here with a video communications patent and a network collaboration patent; and the continued Delaware-to-Texas flow of patents by a named inventor awaiting the lift of a Northern District of California stay, that lift increasingly likely given a long list of inter partes reviews (IPRs) and ex parte reexaminations (EPR) seeming to draw to an end.

A couple of weeks ago, RPX noted “A Trio of Patent Transfers Worth Watching” (July 2024), which turned out to be fairly accurate, as two of the recipients—Cloud BYTE LLC (see here) and Light Guide Innovations LLC (see here)—have each launched litigation over their received assets. The third transfer from that article could also lead to litigation, as might this week’s highlighted transaction, from Orange to Transpacific IP Group Limited. In addition, two other sets of recorded assignments suggest that additional litigation might be coming, one from a party already involved in a case and one from a party that has yet to file suit.

Staton Techiya, LLC (as patent owner) and Synergy IP Corporation (as exclusive licensee) have together sued Samsung (2:21-cv-00413) over ten patents generally related to earphone/earpiece technologies. In the new Eastern District of Texas complaint, the pair of plaintiffs targets the provision of “certain Bixby-enabled smartphones and earphones”. This litigation is the second of 2021 to involve both Samsung and Synergy IP, a Korean monetization firm with which “a former Samsung licensing executive and attorney” now appears to be working.

Samsung (5:21-cv-02989) has filed a declaratory judgment action against Blaze Mobile, Inc. and its CEO Michelle Fisher, seeking judgments of noninfringement for eight patents—generally related to various aspects of advertisements, near field communications technology, or financial transactions—through its provision of Samsung Pay, Samsung Ads, and Samsung Galaxy Store services, as well as any supported devices. Attached to the new complaint is a November 2020 letter sent to Samsung by Synergy IP Corporation, purporting to represent Blaze Mobile “with regard to the negotiation for licensing Blaze’s patent rights”, identifying by number the eight patents that are the subject of Samsung’s complaint, and indicating that Blaze “is strategically drafting its patent claims to cover other Samsung services in the United States”.