A third litigation campaign tied to Illinois attorney Jeffrey W. Salmon has opened, Wildcat Licensing LLC accusing Autel Robotics (Autel Intelligent Technology, Autel Robotics USA) (6:23-cv-00446), Parrot (Parrot Drones) (6:23-cv-00449), and Yuneec (6:23-cv-00450), in separate Western District of Texas complaints, of infringing up to four unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) patents that it acquired, as part of a larger portfolio, from Daedalus Blue LLC in April 2023. Targeted is the provision of certain drones, with features related to obstacle avoidance, waypoint navigation, and/or orthophoto (geographical photo) capture at issue.

In February of this year, the USPTO issued to Wildcat Licensing WI LLC two patents that the NPE obtained based on reissue applications filed after their earlier predecessors were invalidated through inter partes review (IPR). Wildcat Licensing WI began litigating those prior patents in May 2013 in a campaign that appeared to close in December 2016 when the Federal Circuit affirmed the cancellation of all challenged claims through two IPRs brought by district court defendant Johnson Controls. That closure, however, has proved only temporary; Wildcat Licensing WI has now rebooted its campaign, filing suit against BMW (1:19-cv-00834), Faurecia (1:19-cv-00839), Fiat Chrysler (FCA US, FCA Italy) (1:19-cv-00840), Ford (1:19-cv-00842), GM (1:19-cv-00843), Lear (1:19-cv-00845), Magna International (1:19-cv-00846), and TATA (Jaguar Land Rover) (1:19-cv-00844), and Volkswagen (Audi) (1:19-cv-00833). The two asserted reissue patents are described as “encompass[ing] core technology in the field of assembling articles of manufacture”; infringement allegations focus on the provision of vehicles and automotive components manufactured using methods that “perform error free fastening or error-proofing automated assembly”.

The dismissal in late August 2018 of a case filed by Sockeye Licensing TX LLC against Lenovo ended that NPE’s last round of suits, filed in the Central District of California. Sockeye has now begun another round, this one comprising cases filed against Panasonic (1:18-cv-01750) and Toshiba (1:18-cv-01749) in the District of Delaware, over Blu-ray players that allow playback on a connected TV of video received on a smartphone, and against Hisense (1:18-cv-05129) in the Northern District of Georgia, over Hisense Smartcast, which facilitates similar functionality. At issue in the new complaints are two patents from a five-member family generally related to the use of a wireless communications device (e.g., a cell phone) to control and provide network connectivity to standard desktop peripherals (e.g., a monitor and keyboard).

Samsung (1:15-cv-10278) is the latest Sockeye Licensing TX LLC defendant to turn declaratory judgment plaintiff, becoming the thirteenth such company when it filed a new complaint against the NPE in the Northern District of Illinois. In early October, Sockeye asserted two patents (8,135,342; 8,879,987) generally related to creating a desktop computing environment with a wireless device against over 45 companies that make or sell Wi-Fi Certified Miracast products. Sockeye has now voluntarily dismissed all but two of those cases, after first HP (1:15-cv-09341), then other defendants, filed complaints seeking declaratory judgments alleging that Sockeye did not own the patents-in-suit at the time that it filed in Texas. Sockeye has not admitted that its failure to file an annual report and pay franchise taxes rendered assignment of the two patents to Sockeye null and void, destroying its standing to sue for infringement on the date of filing in Texas, but it nevertheless began voluntarily dismissing the early October cases.

Beginning with HP (1:15-cv-09341) on October 21, 2015, several defendants recently sued for patent infringement in the Eastern District of Texas by Sockeye Licensing TX LLC have filed separate actions in the Northern District of Illinois, seeking declaratory judgments that the two patents in the campaign (8,135,342, 8,879,987) are invalid and not infringed. Xerox (1:15-cv-09341), NEC (1:15-cv-09341), ZTE (1:15-cv-09589), Roku (1:15-cv-09577), Best Buy (1:15-cv-09625), and Sony (1:15-cv-09628), like HP, have each alleged that Sockeye forfeited its right to do business in Texas by failing to file an annual report and pay franchise taxes. These failures, according to the Illinois complaints, render the assignment of the two patents to Sockeye null and void, destroying Sockeye’s standing to sue anyone for infringement of them on the date of filing in Texas.