Verified Hiring, LLC has added a first batch of 2016 cases to its applicant tracking and talent management campaign, doubling the number of defendants named. Last year’s complaints asserted two patents (5,592,375; 6,658,400) against a host of defendants, including ADP, CareerBuilder, HireMojo, IBM, as well as other companies providing applicant and/or talent management software. The new complaints assert only the ‘400 patent, which generally focuses on verified data exchange in multi-user environments, against the software products offered principally by companies providing background check services.

This year has now seen Verified Hiring, LLC reboot its applicant tracking and talent management campaign with a second patent and two waves of new cases. In February 2015, the NPE filed ten, including suits against ADP, CareerBuilder, IBM, and Oracle, and now in November, it has added cases against 17 more companies, including Ceridian HCM, Fast Workforce, HireMojo, Kronos, and Vivify Software. All of the complaints filed this year assert two patents (5,592,375; 6,658,400) against the defendants’ software built to track or match applicants or otherwise manage talent. However, only the ‘375 patent, which generally relates to computer-implemented applicant matching, has been asserted in litigation before this year.

During the second half of February 2015 RPX saw 13 transfers of patents recorded with the USPTO.

A new NPE associated with IPNav, Verified Hiring, LLC, filed suit against ADP, CareerBuilder, Cornerstone, Halogen, HealthcareSource HR, IBM, Oracle, SAP subsidiary SuccessFactors, SumTotal, and Ultimate Software Group. At issue in the suits is defendants’ human resources management software. Verified Hiring asserts two patents in each suit, both of which concern employment related software for tracking input about multiple candidates and/or employees, as well as employer requirements (5,592,375, 6,658,400). The entity, incorporated in November 2014, shares a Texas address with a number of IPNav entities. Verified Hiring acquired the patents in two separate transactions. The ‘400 patent was assigned to Verified Hiring by the inventor in November 2014. The ‘375 patent was acquired from Bruce R. Culver, the CEO of IdealHire Technologies, a failed operating company. Culver acquired the patent in 2001, around the time he founded IdealHire. The assignment from Culver to Verified Hiring is not recorded, but the complaint notes that the entity owns the patent. The ‘375 patent originated with Eagleview, which assigned it to Pentawave in the ’90s; both are failed operating companies. The ‘375 patent was previously asserted in litigation by Trunqate LLC, an NPE that filed a campaign of five litigations between July 2011 and October 2013. Its last litigation ended in December 2014. RPX reviewed the ‘375 patent as part of an OMA from June 2010 (IdealHire – Acq). The ‘400 patent has not been seen in previous litigation. 2/11, Eastern District of Texas, 6:15cv00113, 6:15cv00114, 6:15cv00115, 6:15cv00116, 6:15cv00117, 6:15cv00118, 6:15cv00120, 2/12, Eastern District of Texas, 6:15cv00125, 6:15cv00126, 6:15cv00127