The operation of Delaware Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly’s April 2022 standing order regarding heightened disclosure of corporate ownership somewhat famously led to the dismissal of the Delaware leg of litigation filed by VLSI Technology LLC, a plaintiff tied to Fortress Investment Group LLC, against Intel. VLSI Technology contended that its disclosure had reached the limits of its knowledge about who owns it, but Intel—and apparently Judge Connolly—were unsatisfied. Covenants not to sue and a stipulated dismissal followed. Recently, a pair of Delaware cases involving another longtime patent monetization player, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), landed before Judge Connolly for the first time, the IV entities named facing that same April 2022 standing order.

Late last month, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) appears to have moved roughly 140 patents into position for divestment. The last assignment of patents leaving IV to appear in publicly recorded USPTO records saw about 60 patent assets transferred to Integral Wireless Technologies LLC, an entity formed by the founders of Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC, suggesting that litigation over at least some of the assets now pegged to depart IV may be coming. However, a review of 2024 divestitures for IV suggests that the transfer of patents out of the firm does not always indicate additional patent risk, at least not immediately.

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.

One well-established monetization operation has announced the acquisition of a portfolio of patents from Innolux, while another is the recipient of yet another batch of patents assembled and divested from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). Meanwhile, a newer monetization team has picked up a set of patents from an operating company in a move suggesting that litigation over the received assets is coming.

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”.

Amid a recent bustle of internal Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) assignment activity is one clear divestiture. In early October, two IV entities assigned a combined 145 patent assets to AI-CORE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC. The recipient, formed in Texas the prior month, has yet to file suit over its new holdings, but given its connections—to two IV veterans and their growing web of patent plaintiffs—it appears to be just a matter of time.

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.

This past May, Intellectual Ventures I LLC (IV I) launched a new litigation campaign by suing Extreme Networks in the District of Delaware where little happened before the NPE filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on August 8. That same day IV I filed a second Delaware complaint over the same wireless communications patent, accusing Ubiquiti (1:23-cv-00865) of infringement through the provision of products that support IEEE 802.11ac SU Beamforming, including the Ubiquiti WiFi BaseStation XG Wave 2 Access Point.

RecepTrexx LLC has been expanding its litigation over six former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) patents that the plaintiff received from Mind Fusion LLC in early April. Thus, while it has been clear for some time that at some point earlier this year IV moved a portfolio of patents to Mind Fusion, the size of that divestiture has been a little uncertain. The USPTO recently has made public two assignments from IV affiliates to Mind Fusion, both dated in mid-February, that combined bring the size of the deal into focus.