Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), through Intellectual Ventures I LLC and Intellectual Ventures II LLC, has filed an Eastern District of Texas case against American Airlines (4:24-cv-00980) and a Western District of Texas against Southwest Airlines (7:24-cv-00277), both asserting six patents of disparate origin. Three of those patents are already in suit in the Eastern District of Texas, against Comerica, JP Morgan Chase, and Liberty Mutual, pulling these complaints into an existing campaign that targets the use of Docker, Kafka, Kubernetes, and/or Spark. With these new cases, IV expands its infringement allegations to include the use of Hadoop, as well as the provision of Wi-Fi on board airplanes.

Western District of Texas District Judge Alan D. Albright frequently found himself at odds with the Federal Circuit over his handling of transfer motions just a few years ago, peaking in a wave of mandamus rulings against him in 2021. That June, Judge Albright—at that point still swimming against the tide on transfers—issued an expansive pair of rulings that found venue to be proper against Hyundai and Volkswagen based on the presence of third-party car dealerships in his district. This prompted a sharp rebuke and reversal by the Federal Circuit, which in March 2022 precedentially held that he was wrong to find an agency relationship between the automakers and those dealerships. Now, with his conflict with the Federal Circuit largely in the rear-view mirror, Judge Albright has heeded the court’s prior warning, rejecting another dealership-based venue argument in transferring a case filed by two Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) plaintiffs against Zhejiang Geely (Volvo) to the District of New Jersey.

Intellectual Ventures II LLC, a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), has added two Western District of Texas cases against Tesla (1:24-cv-00390, 6:24-cv-00188), one in the Austin Division and the other in the Waco Division, to the automotive wing of one of the longest-running litigation campaigns, active since 2011. The same dozen patents are asserted in the two complaints, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of automobiles and related products that support the Autopilot and Connectivity services, as well as the use of Kubernetes within the “Tesla Infrastructure”.

Intellectual Ventures LLC, through Intellectual Ventures I LLC and Intellectual Ventures II LLC, has filed suit against Comerica (2:23-cv-00524), JP Morgan Chase (2:23-cv-00523), and Liberty Mutual (Comparion Insurance Agency, Ironshore Holdings) (2:23-cv-00525) over the provision of various financial (Comerica and JPMorgan Chase) and insurance (Liberty Mutual) products and services. At issue is the use of Docker, Kafka, Kubernetes, and/or Spark. Six patents are asserted in the case against JP Morgan Chase, four of those in the other two complaints, each of which was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, where Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap presides.

Intellectual Ventures LLC has added a June case against Volvo (6:23-cv-00429) to one of the longest-running litigation campaigns, active since 2011. That new Western District of Texas complaint follows multiple April suits in the same campaign, filed separately (in that same district) against each of Lenovo (6:23-cv-00307), OnePlus (6:23-cv-00290), TCL (6:23-cv-00309), TP-Link (6:23-cv-00308), and Zebra Technologies (6:23-cv-00292) and a May case that comprises a brand new campaign, hitting Extreme Networks (1:23-cv-00489) in the District of Delaware. There, the suit is among several assigned to Western District of Pennsylvania Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, sitting in Delaware by designation.

Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), as Intellectual Ventures I LLC (IV I) and Intellectual Ventures II LLC (IV II), has sued OnePlus (6:23-cv-00290), TCL (6:23-cv-00293), TP-Link (6:23-cv-00291), and Zebra Technologies (6:23-cv-00292) over the provision of a wide array of devices, ranging from access points to smartphones. The accused features include compliance with the IEEE 802.11ac/ax/n networking standards; the incorporation of Qualcomm processors and LPDDR4, LPDDR4X, and LPDDR5 memory; the incorporation of ARM Cortex-Axx processors; and support for multi-hop wireless networking. Each of the five asserted patents has appeared earlier in this campaign, which has been active since September 2011.

Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), as Intellectual Ventures II LLC, has sued Lenovo (6:23-cv-00068) over the provision of networking devices (e.g., the BladeCenter, Flex System x, System x, and ThinkSystem-series servers) that include the Lenovo Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) and/or Lenovo XClarity Controller (XCC) embedded secure mana­­gement processors, as well as related software. The two asserted patents—in suit against HP Enterprise (HPE) through a June 2022 case, also filed in the Western District of Texas—broadly pertain to remotely managing network devices. District Judge Alan D. Albright has granted a joint motion for a stay in that case, after IV and HPE filed a notice of settlement.

The Federal Circuit has denied a petition for a writ of mandamus that had sought an order requiring Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright to transfer a case filed by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) (as Intellectual Ventures I LLC (IV I) and Intellectual Ventures II LLC (IV II)) against GM to the Eastern District of Michigan. Judge Albright having found, among other things, “that there were GM employees in the Western District of Texas with relevant and material information” and that “the Western District could compel the testimony of potential third-party witnesses, including inventor testimony”, the appellate court ruled that the district court’s findings “provide a plausible basis for the conclusion that GM failed to demonstrate that litigating this case in the transferee forum would be clearly more convenient”. Judge Albright denied GM’s motion to transfer one day before holding a claim construction hearing in the suit, the court handing down the resulting Markman order about a month later but doing something in parallel that it has relatively seldom done: entering a memorandum that explains the reasoning for the court’s constructions.

Last October, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) expanded one of the longest-running litigation campaigns on the books, having hit camera makers, wireless carriers, networking equipment manufacturers, and mobile device makers since 2011, to also include automakers. IV (as Intellectual Ventures I LLC and Intellectual Ventures II LLC) sued GM in the Western District of Texas, as well as Honda and Toyota in the Eastern District of Texas. Honda filed a motion to dismiss for improper venue, as well as a motion to stay matters until the Federal Circuit responded to petitions for a writs of mandamus filed by Hyundai and Volkswagen in response to a Western District of Texas order hinging venue there on the presence of in-district dealerships. In March, the Federal Circuit spoke, echoes of which continue to spread.

Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), via plaintiff Intellectual Ventures II LLC (IV II), has filed another case against HP Enterprise (HPE) (6:21-cv-01298), again in the Western District of Texas—even though HPE has repeatedly moved (with some apparent success) for convenience transfers elsewhere. A single patent generally related to “hosting computing clusters” is asserted in the new complaint, with IV targeting certain HPE cloud computing services, together with related hardware and software. The new case is the third that IV filed against HPE in 2021.