Another ex parte reexamination of a patent asserted in litigation by IXI IP, LLC and IXI Mobile (R&D) Ltd. (collectively, IXI) has resulted in the issuance of both amended and new claims, prompting Apple (5:20-cv-04050) and Samsung (5:20-cv-04047) to file another set of declaratory judgment complaints against IXI. The venue is again the Northern District of California, where District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. has been presiding over litigation between these parties for years, including over cases that Apple and Samsung filed last October seeking declaratory judgments of noninfringement and invalidity of claims from another patent, held unpatentable through inter partes reviews (IPRs) but arising somewhat anew through ex parte reexam.

Apple (4:19-cv-06769) and Samsung (4:19-cv-06773) have each filed an analogous complaint in the Northern District of California seeking declaratory judgments of claim preclusion, noninfringement, and invalidity of claims added by IXI IP, LLC and IXI Mobile (R&D) Ltd. (collectively, IXI) to a patent already held invalid. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) cancelled the patent’s claims through a final written decision in an inter partes review (IPR), a decision later affirmed by the Federal Circuit. Litigation over that particular patent nevertheless persisted. Why?

In September 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw more than ten petitions filed in NPE campaigns involving networking and related technologies such as cybersecurity, including those waged by publicly traded Finjan Holdings, Inc.; prolific private litigant Realtime Data LLC; and Oyster Optics, LLC. Trial was instituted in September for an inter partes review (IPR) against Finjan and in IPRs against other frequent plaintiffs, including MyMail, Ltd. and Sound View Innovations, LLC. The Board issued final decisions in two covered business method (CBM) reviews against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, the first AIA reviews against the NPE to reach final decisions since March 2016, and only the fourth to date. The PTAB also issued final decisions in IPRs against publicly traded Document Security Systems, Inc. as well as Acceleration Bay, LLC; Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC; and Personalized Media Communications, LLC; among other NPEs.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has cancelled multiple claims from three wireless hotspot patents (7,016,648; 7,039,033; 7,295,532) asserted by IXI Mobile Inc. (IXI) against Apple and Samsung. In four December 21 final decisions, issued in response to inter partes reviews (IPR) jointly filed by the two companies, the Board ruled that all but one of the claims litigated by IXI are invalid in light of prior art. The PTAB held that nearly all challenged claims from the ‘532 patent—apart from claim 10, which the Board declined to review—are obvious over prior art (IPR2015-01443). In addition, it found that all challenged claims from the ‘033 are obvious over other references (IPR2015-01444) and that all challenged claims from the ‘648 patent were either anticipated by (IPR2015-01445) or obvious over (IPR2015-01446) prior art.