CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP) has filed suit against Savant Systems (1:24-cv-08502) in the Southern District of New York. The patent-in-suit generally relates to controlling an “environment” through a server and a control client, just one from five asserted across the roughly 20 complaints that have been filed in this campaign since its October 2022 start. The accused products are certain media/music servers (“the PAV-SIPA devices (SIPA1SM, SIPA50SM, SIPA125SM)”) together with apps used to control them. The new complaint drops a couple of weeks after the USPTO canceled, via ex parte reexam (EPR), all 20 claims of one of the asserted patent’s family members.

In February 2023, Northern District of Texas Judge Brantley Starr shifted attorney fees in favor of defendant VMware, ordering ZT IP, LLC to pay VMware $92,130.35 within 30 days of that order. The court deemed the case exceptional, in part, because the accused product was released in 2002, a full year before the application that led to the patent asserted in the case; per Judge Starr, “VMware provided all the information for ZT to quickly realize that it had no claim and that it should have dropped the suit before any of the parties spent unnecessary fees”. Not “a single dime” received from ZT IP by August of last year, VMware propounded post-judgment discovery and filed motions to amend the judgment and to join additional parties, including Dynamic IP Deals LLC (d/b/a DynaIP) and its principal Carlos O. Gorrichategui, Entente IP, LLC and its principal David Ghorbanpoor, Pueblo Nuevo LLC (but not its principal Hernan Arturo Perez Torrijos), and litigation counsel Ramey LLP and its principal William P. Ramey III. By December 2023, though, having expended tens of thousands more dollars trying to collect the fees owed from ZT IP, which VMware characterizes as a “judgment-proof shell company”, VMware withdrew its motions, and just this month, Judge Starr granted Ramey LLP’s motion to withdraw from the suit.

In its newest complaint, filed by Ramey LLP in the Western District of Texas, CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP) states, “The Accused Instrumentality is Google Smart Home”. That assertion appears to contradict the identity of the defendant, Comcast (7:24-cv-00072), as well as the claim chart attached to the complaint, which instead identifies a variety of Comcast’s own smart home security products sold under its Xfinity brand, including the Xfinity Home app, its “The Panel” control device, as used to control a home security system, including security cameras, sensors, video doorbells, and door locks. In an earlier, separate action, Google has asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice because CSHIP missed its deadline to respond to a motion to dismiss.

The cases that CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP) filed against Amazon (Ring), in the Central District of California, and against Alphabet (Google), in the Western District of Texas, have been stayed to await the outcome of an ex parte reexamination (EPR) of the sole patent there asserted. CSHIP has hit Google a second time, now with two other patents from the same family, one of which is making its debut in this campaign, begun last October; again targeted is the control of connected devices via mobile app within the Google Home platform.

CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP) has followed up its March 2023 case against Amazon (Ring), filed in the Central District of California, with a round of early June suits, hitting Alphabet (Google) (1:23-cv-00625) and Armstrong Group (Guardian Protection Services) (6:23-cv-00416) in the Western District of Texas; The Philadelphia Contributionship (Vector Security) (2:23-cv-00264) in the Eastern District of Texas; and Bosch (Bosch Security Systems) (0:23-cv-61040) in the Southern District of Florida. Three patents generally related to monitoring and controlling multiple devices are in suit in this campaign, but just one of them has been asserted in these more recent complaints.

CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP) has filed its first suit outside of the Western District of Texas, hitting Amazon (Ring) (2:23-cv-02247) with a new Central District of California complaint. In suit is a single patent from the asserted family, generally related to controlling and monitoring multiple devices, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of smart home security products that can be controlled, alongside connected smart devices, by a mobile app. Litigation remains active against two of the five prior defendants, ADT and Samsung, both of which have answered. Meanwhile, CSHIP—a plaintiff associated with one of the monetization firms, Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP), caught up in the “Series of Extraordinary Events” unfolding (albeit more slowly these days) in Delaware—has filed yet another eyebrow-raising certificate of interested parties in its latest case.

CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC (CSHIP), a plaintiff associated with Texas monetization firm Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP), launched a home security campaign with early October cases filed separately against ADT, Monitronics (d/b/a Brinks Home and LiveWatch Security), and Philips in the Western District of Texas. Several days later, CSHIP expanded its new campaign in that same venue, suing Samsung (6:22-cv-01069) and Vivint Smart Home (Vivint) (6:22-cv-01070). Under the new judge assignment system imposed for Waco patent litigation, these five cases have landed, at least initially, in three different courtrooms: those of District Judges Fred Biery (ADT and Samsung), Orlando L. Garcia (Vivint), and Jason K. Pulliam (Brinks and Philips).

Formed this past June in Texas, CLOUD SYSTEMS HOLDCO IP LLC has filed its first litigation, suing ADT (6:22-cv-01063), Monitronics (d/b/a Brinks Home and LiveWatch Security) (6:22-cv-01067), and Philips (6:22-cv-01068) over the provision of smart home security systems that can be controlled, alongside connected smart devices, by a mobile app. Three patents are asserted in overlapping sets across the Western District of Texas complaints, their general subject matter controlling and monitoring multiple devices.