Heritage IP LLC and Mallard IP LLC, both plaintiffs apparently associated with Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, filed suits at the end of July, continuing their joint campaign over former Cypress Semiconductor patents. Heritage IP sued Rand McNally (RM Acquisition) (1:22-cv-01019) and ZiLOG (1:22-cv-01020) over the provision of devices that incorporate certain ARM Cortex M0-based microcontrollers with dynamic power management capabilities, including logging devices and microcontrollers, respectively. Mallard IP hit Advantech (1:22-cv-03959) over the provision of the DS-082 Player and Fujitsu (2:22-cv-00289) over the provision of the PRIMERGY GX2460 server, each of which incorporates DDR4 SDRAM.

Heritage IP LLC has filed another round of suits in what has shifted to a litigation campaign over a single former Cypress Semiconductor patent acquired from Monterey Research, LLC, a subsidiary of IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue). The patent asserted in this latest batch of complaints—filed against Boston Scientific (1:21-cv-00935), Canon (2:21-cv-03705), Gimbal (1:21-cv-00936), Tanita (1:21-cv-03503), and VivaChek Laboratories (1:21-cv-00937)—generally relates to microcontrollers with “power on reset” (PoR) circuits. NXP Semiconductors jumped into this fray last July, after one of its customers had been sued, first filing a complaint seeking declaratory judgments followed by a quick motion for a judgment on the pleadings, challenging this asserted patent under Alice. Heritage IP, an apparent IP Edge LLC plaintiff, opposed the motion by locking horns on every issue.

As extensively reported by RPX, the acquisition and assertion of operating company patents by NPEs remained a significant driver of litigation throughout 2020. Be prepared for this long-term trend to possibly accelerate as a result of the COVID-19 recession. If past is prologue, the current financial crisis will likely be followed by years of increased patent divestments by operating companies—including to NPEs.

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.