TS-Optics Corporation has filed a Central District of California complaint against Microsoft (8:24-cv-01974), targeting the provision of XBOX-series consoles that include certain disk drives, as well as the XBOX Cloud Gaming service, which supports the XBOX Touch Controls feature. The plaintiff received the two patents-in-suit, one generally related to an optical disk drive including a certain “optical pickup actuator” and the other, to virtual remote controls, from Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd.

RPX recently noted the transfer of nine US patents from South Korean research institution Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to KAIFI LLC, a Texas plaintiff that has previously litigated a single patent originating with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) but received from Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. That assignment is now sandwiched between a July 2023 transfer from PowerVoice to KAIFI (three patents) and an April 2024 transfer from Intellectual Discovery (one patent). This past week, KAIFI sued Amazon (2:24-cv-00542) over its received assets, in a new Eastern District of Texas complaint that targets the provision of a wide array of products, including the Alexa voice assistant and related products.

Wireless Alliance, LLC, an Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. plaintiff, has filed its first litigation, suing AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (2:23-cv-00095), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:23-cv-00096), and Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:23-cv-00097) over the provision of their respective 4G and/or 5G cellular networking services. Three wireless communications patents are asserted in the Eastern District of Texas complaints. Wireless Alliance pleads that it owns one of those patents and is the exclusive licensee with respect to the other two, which it indicates are owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

Throop, LLC, a California entity, has filed its first lawsuits, accusing Alphabet (Google) (2:19-cv-10602), Microsoft (2:19-cv-10604), Seiko (Epson America) (2:19-cv-10597), Sony (2:19-cv-10605), and Vuzix (2:19-cv-10606) of infringing two patents, generally related to wearable devices that can communicate real-time video information. The accused products are the defendants’ augmented reality wearable devices, including the Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, Epson Moverio BT (used with Moverio Assist), Sony EyeGlass, and M100 Smart Glasses, respectively, targeting features that allow for video communications with other users.

The second half of 2018 saw a number of NPEs launch US litigation campaigns asserting patents developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), a South Korean research institution. In at least two of those campaigns (including one kicked off by Sol IP, LLC last week), the plaintiffs are purported exclusive licensees of the patents-in-suit—an arrangement that has yielded mixed results for ETRI and its licensees.

In the second half of May 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. One of those transactions involved a patent that has already been asserted in litigation.