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.

Late 2019/early 2020 saw prolific NPE IP Edge LLC—which has filed over 100 new patent cases since the start of this year—acquire patent portfolios from a variety of sources, including Huawei; a litigating subsidiary of IP Value Management (d/b/a IPValue); and a subsidiary of Allied Inventors Management, LLC. The transactions discussed in this article have placed in IP Edge’s hands assets originating with AMD, Cypress Semiconductor, Fujitsu, and Huawei, among others—some of which it has already begun litigating.

Sunset Licensing LLC has sued Azuga (5:20-cv-02174), CalAmp (4:20-cv-00267), Marelli Holding (1:20-cv-00448), Sierra Wireless (1:20-cv-00449), Skypatrol (1:20-cv-00450), Smartrak (3:20-cv-02176), and Torre Industries (MiX Telematics) (4:20-cv-01154) in various districts. Each defendant is accused of infringing a single patent, generally related to monitoring the speed of a vehicle, through the provision of devices capable of tracking vehicle speed. With recent years past as prologue, and particularly given other recent IP Edge LLC activity, this new campaign appears to be the first of many—with USPTO assignment records suggesting that some may see patents asserted from the same source.