Stingray IP Solutions, LLC has filed an Eastern District of Texas case against HP Enterprise (HPE) (2:24-cv-00868) that targets the provision of “networking, IoT, and security solutions, products, components, software, services, and processes related to same that generally connect to other devices in a network or other networks using a wireless protocol, such as ZigBee and/or Wi-Fi”. The Acacia Research Corporation plaintiff describes the three asserted patents as covering “various aspects of monitoring, detecting intrusions, and encrypting and decrypting wireless communications networks”. The exemplary accused products include access points, controllers, gateways, and related accessories and software products.

Stingray IP Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation, has filed an Eastern District of Texas suit against ASSA ABLOY (2:24-cv-00159), targeting the support of certain wireless communications standards (i.e., Wi-Fi and ZigBee) within a wide array of devices, including bridges, card readers, gateways, modules, and smart locks, as well as related software products. After multiple strategic shifts, Acacia—in partnership with its majority shareholder Starboard Value—now characterizes itself as “an opportunistic capital platform that purchases businesses based on the differentials between public and private market valuations” but maintains a legacy “Patent Licensing, Enforcement and Technologies Business” that has not “obtain[ed] control of any new patent portfolios” since 2021.

NRG Energy (Vivint) (2:23-cv-00503) and Leedarson IOT Technology (Leedarson Lighting) (2:23-cv-00499) are the latest defendants to be sued by Stingray IP Solutions, LLC in its wireless communications campaign, initiated in February 2021. At issue in each of the new East Texas complaints are four patents described by the plaintiff, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, as covering “various aspects of monitoring, detecting intrusions, and encrypting and decrypting wireless communications networks”. The defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home products that support certain wireless networking protocols (i.e., Wi-Fi and ZigBee).

Plenty of ink has been spilled in the last few years over the Federal Circuit’s caselaw on venue—an issue frequently in the spotlight due to the court’s sparring with District Judge Alan D. Albright over convenience transfers. However, a different, venue-adjacent issue was at the center of a new precedential opinion from the Federal Circuit—that of general personal jurisdiction, or a court’s power to hear any claim against a certain defendant, over foreign corporations. While general personal jurisdiction exists for a US company in the state where it is “at home”, a different rule applies for non-US residents. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(k)(2), general personal jurisdiction can be established over a defendant who “is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction”—i.e., a nonresident defendant, one not at home in any state—for a claim arising under federal law. Such a defendant can only challenge 4(k)(2) jurisdiction by identifying an alternate forum where the suit against it could have been brought. Yet the Federal Circuit’s January 9 In re: Stingray IP Solutions decision dealt with an even narrower edge case: whether a defendant can defeat 4(k)(2) jurisdiction solely by unilaterally consenting to jurisdiction in a different venue. The court held that it cannot do so.

Stingray IP Solutions, LLC has added cases against ADT (2:22-cv-00421) and Resideo Technologies (2:22-cv-00420) to its sole litigation campaign, which targets the provision of smart devices and related products that support certain Wi-Fi wireless standards with patents acquired from Harris Corporation (now L3Harris after the 2019 merger with L3 Technologies). The Acacia Research Corporation plaintiff filed its new litigation back in the Eastern District of Texas, where its earlier October case, against Johnson Controls (2:22-cv-00389), was filed, rather than in the Central District of California, to where the other active litigation, against TP-Link, was just transferred, after District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled that his court does not have personal jurisdiction over TP-Link.

Acacia Research Corporation released its second quarter financials on August 16, reporting higher year-over-year licensing revenue and a number of settlements across multiple enforcement campaigns. While Acacia has completed fewer patent acquisitions so far this year (as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020), a Q2 transaction has already given way to a new litigation campaign, begun earlier this month.

Stingray IP Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, has continued its pattern of filing cases in pairs, hitting Amazon (Amazon.com, eero, Immedia Semiconductor (d/b/a Blink), Ring)) (2:21-cv-00194, 2:21-cv-00196), Legrand (2:21-cv-00201, 2:21-cv-00202), and Somfy (2:21-cv-00193, 2:21-cv-00195), all in the Eastern District of Texas. Eight patents picked up from Harris Corporation (now L3Harris after the 2019 merger with L3 Technologies) are asserted against each defendant, in groups of four, with infringement allegations throughout the campaign targeting the provision of smart devices and related products that support various wireless standards.

RPX data and analysis indicate that while approximately 85% of the patent litigation filed each year since 2005 has involved patents that originated with operating companies, the vast majority of defendants in those cases were sued by NPEs. This trend persisted through the first quarter of 2021, with new cases brought by a range of NPEs, including serial filers, a publicly traded NPE, and multiple third-party backed plaintiffs.

Last year saw publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation amass a sizeable stockpile of patents, with CIO Al Tobia Jr., in a November 2020 earnings call, declaring that Acacia’s “IP team has been hard at work with our four previously acquired portfolios and we are on track to deliver the returns that we anticipated when we acquired these assets earlier this year and late last year”. Here, at the end of January, the company has kicked off the new year with litigation from that stockpile, both R2 Solutions LLC and Stingray IP Solutions LLC launching Acacia’s first new campaigns since last June.

Several patent assignments made public by the USPTO last month suggest that multiple new NPE campaigns asserting former operating company patents are in the works. The portfolios now in NPE hands include patents originating with Chungwa Picture Tubes, IBM, L3Harris, Motorola, Olympus, Polaroid, Rockwell Automation, Samsung, and Sanyo, among others.