A Western District of Texas jury has returned an $18M infringement verdict in one of the longest-running patent litigation campaigns still active. On March 22, the jury found that ASUSTek infringed two patents asserted against it by inventor-controlled ACQIS LLC, following an extended back-and-forth over whether a claim construction ruling that led to a judgment of noninfringement in prior litigation should have a preclusive effect here. The verdict in this case is the plaintiff’s second, the first handed down in 2011 in the campaign’s inaugural lawsuit—which was filed all the way back in April 2009.

As trial in an earlier Western District of Texas case, against ASUSTek, has been reset for March 2024, ACQIS LLC has sued Advantech (6:23-cv-00882), Cisco (6:23-cv-00884), Fujitsu (6:23-cv-00878), MSI (Micro-Star International) (6:23-cv-00883), Panasonic (6:23-cv-00880), and ZT Group (6:23-cv-00881) over the provision of various products (e.g., computer, networking, and server products) that support “[Peripheral Component Interconnect Express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x” functionality. The fresh round of suits—in one of the longest-running active campaigns—comes after District Judge Alan D. Albright granted a motion for summary judgment of validity to ACQIS in the ASUSTek case and, in separate suits, denied a motion for a convenience transfer filed by Sony and denied a motion for partial dismissal of Section 271(g) claims filed by Quanta Computer—a denial that will likely bear on a parallel motion for dismissal, filed by Hon Hai Precision Industry.

In early August, Sony filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, asking the appeals court to transfer a case filed against it by ACQIS LLC, a subsidiary of Acqis Technology Incorporated, for convenience, from the Western District of Texas to the Northern District of California. Judge Alan D. Albright had denied that request, granting an alternative ask to move the case from the Waco Division to the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas—where he will continue to preside over the dispute. Last week, the appeals court denied Sony’s petition, adding to a list of more recent refusals to disturb the decisions of Judge Albright.

This past week, the Federal Circuit denied a petition for a writ of mandamus sought by RingCentral after Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright rejected its renewed motion to dismiss for improper venue. RingCentral had argued that plaintiff Marble VOIP Partners LLC could not fix a venue flaw by filing an amended complaint identifying for the first time a lease for an in-district property that RingCentral signed after the date of the original complaint. The appeals court turned RingCentral away, as it has two other recent mandamus petitioners: Apple, in a case filed by Lionra Technologies Limited (involving a transfer for convenience); and Realtek Semiconductor, in one filed by ParkerVision, Inc. (involving alternative means of service).

Last week, Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright denied a motion to stay a case against Sony filed by ACQIS LLC, a subsidiary of Acqis Technology Incorporated, and transferred from the Waco Division to the Austin Division. Sony had sought a convenience transfer to the Northern District of California, asking in the alternative for the move to Austin from Waco. In July, Judge Albright granted the transfer—to Austin, where he will remain the presiding judge. Sony filed a motion to stay the case, pending mandamus review of that transfer decision by the Federal Circuit, which motion Judge Albright denied—in a text-only order on the docket—the next day.

Last April, ACQIS LLC, a subsidiary of Acqis Technology Incorporated, separately sued Microsoft and Sony in a pair of Western District of Texas complaints added to a litigation campaign active since April 2009. The plaintiff has now added two more April suits, accusing Hon Hai Precision Industry (6:23-cv-00264) and Quanta Computer (6:23-cv-00265), again in West Texas, of infringing overlapping subsets of the 30 patents at issue in this campaign, through the provision of products that support the “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x” functionality, including various Apple products. Apple is not among the more than two dozen defendants snagged by this campaign over the past decade plus.

ACQIS LLC, a subsidiary of Acqis Technology Incorporated, has filed Western District of Texas complaints against Microsoft (6:22-cv-00685) and Sony (6:22-cv-00686) in its long-running campaign targeting the support of the “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x” functionality in various devices, here the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 computer and PlayStation 4 Slim gaming console, respectively. The new complaints come amid a Federal Circuit appeal from a summary judgment of noninfringement in a case filed earlier against Dell (EMC) (2021-1772), while earlier suits—one filed against each of Acer, ASUSTek, Inventec, Lenovo, and Wistron (Wiwynn)—deal with the fallout from a claim construction hearing and order from District Judge Alan D. Albright.

ACQIS LLC has expanded its sole litigation campaign, begun in 2009, with a new case against Acer (2:21-cv-00275) in the Eastern District of Texas. Cases from a round filed last fall—against ASUSTek, Inventec, Lenovo, MiTAC, Samsung, and Wistron—remain in early stages, while a prior suit, filed against Dell (EMC) in the Eastern District of Texas but transferred to the District of Massachusetts, was just dismissed, District Judge Allison D. Burroughs granting EMC’s motion for summary judgment of noninfringement of all claims from eight asserted patents. The court did so principally because the accused products do not comply with the PCI Local Bus Specification, as Judge Burroughs ruled is required under the court’s construction of a key claim term.

ACQIS LLC (d/b/a ACQIS) has filed suit against ASUSTek (6:20-cv-00966), Inventec (6:20-cv-00965), Lenovo (6:20-cv-00967), MiTAC (6:20-cv-00962), and Wistron (Wiwynn) (6:20-cv-00968), over the support of the “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x” functionality within a wide variety of devices (e.g., computers, laptops, motherboards, and servers). The new cases, filed in the Western District of Texas, join an active September 2020 suit filed in the Eastern District of Texas against Samsung and a September 2013 suit against Dell (EMC), the latter having been transferred from East Texas to the District of Massachusetts, where fully briefed dispositive motions have been on ice for more than two years.

ACQIS LLC (d/b/a ACQIS) has added a case against Samsung (2:20-cv-00295) to a litigation campaign that it began over a decade ago. The inventor-controlled plaintiff targets—with previously well-litigated patents and with patents new to litigation—support of “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x functionality” in a variety of Samsung mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs. This campaign has proceeded in waves, one filed in 2009 against IBM and others, which ended in early 2012; and another filed in September 2013 against four defendants, including EMC (subsequently acquired by Dell), which case remains “active” in the District of Massachusetts. This past March, counsel for ACQIS respectfully requested that District Judge Allison D. Burroughs set a hearing for dispositive motions sitting fully briefed since September 2018 and also set a trial date, noting that the “inventor . . . is approaching seventy, that “[t]he expert witnesses are in their sixties”, and that he, counsel for ACQIS, is in his “late sixties”.