In the past two months, three NPEs with ties to Robert A. Westerland—IP Communication Solutions, LLC, Content Aggregation Solutions LLC, and Nova Intellectual Solutions, LLC—have filed nearly 20 cases against a total of 18 operating companies, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Huawei, HTC, LG Electronics, Sharp, Sony, and ZTE. These NPEs’ principal place of business, according to their complaints, is a luxury condominium in Dallas, Texas owned by Westerlund—a well-known patent attorney, patent broker, and inventor connected to NPEs that have litigated both patents issuing to Westerlund and patents issuing to others but subsequently acquired for assertion.

Adaptive Data LLC sued more than 50 defendants in two rounds of filings on December 31, 2014 and January 5, 2015. The defendants all make or contribute components to electronic devices and include Amazon, Apple, Dell, Epson, Huawei, Lenovo, Marvell Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Sony, and Toshiba. Adaptive Data asserts two patents (6,108,347, 6,243,391) that relate to communication between devices by allocating time slots to devices for transmitting data. Bluetooth-enabled devices are accused of infringing the patents-in-suit. The complaints do not specify what devices are at issue, but the targeted defendants manufacture a variety of devices, including computers, laptops, mobile phones, printers, semiconductor components, tablets, and televisions.