Valve has filed a second amended complaint in the Western District of Washington case (2:23-cv-01016) begun last July against Leigh M. Rothschild and three associated entities Display Technologies, LLC; Patent Asset Management, LLC; and Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), together with Rothschild counsel Meyler Legal, PLLC and its principal Samuel Meyler. The defendants have refiled a motion to dismiss the complaint in which they argue that Valve is “attempting to make ‘a mountain out of a mole hill’ by characterizing a simple clerical error as some sort of legal malfeasance” under the state’s “Patent Troll Protection Act”. Meanwhile, venue challenges in Eastern District of Texas cases filed this past September by three other Rothschild plaintiffs—Quantum Technology Innovations, LLC; Social Positioning Input Systems, LLC (SPIS); and Symbology Innovations, LLC—are ripening.

This past week, Valve Corporation filed a Western District of Washington complaint (2:23-cv-01016) naming as defendants prolific inventor and plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild and three associated entities Display Technologies, LLC; Patent Asset Management, LLC; and Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), together with Rothschild counsel Meyler Legal, PLLC and its principal Samuel Meyler. Valve pleads claims of bad-faith patent assertion and unfair business practices under the Washington State Consumer Protection Act, arising via demands sent to Valve concerning the alleged infringement of patents that Valve pleads are covered by a 2016 license agreement with Display Technologies. Valve also pleads breach of contract, further asking the court for declaratory judgments, one for invalidity and another for unenforceability. Materials attached to Valve’s complaint suggest that the universe of “demands” from Rothschild-tied entities extends beyond those from the defendants named here.   

Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), one of many NPEs controlled by prolific inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild, has continued its sole litigation campaign, launched in March 2015, into 2021, with suits against Schoology (7:21-cv-04250), Verizon (7:21-cv-04322), and ViacomCBS (Showtime Networks) (7:21-cv-04306) in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiff asserts a single patent generally related to the storage of broadcast content, with infringement allegations targeting features related to recording and streaming media content in the defendants’ respective media platforms.

Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), an affiliate of prolific inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild, has extended into 2019 a campaign begun back in March 2015, adding April suits filed against Alphabet (Nest Labs) (3:19-cv-01913), Amcrest Industries (4:19-cv-01211), Honeywell (1:19-cv-00703), and Manything Systems (3:19-cv-01917) to cases brought against D-Link Systems, Mubi, Y-Cam Solutions, and Zmodo in February of this year. These new complaints continue RBDS’s recent infringement focus on the provision of smart home systems, specifically those offering storage of security video footage. The sole patent-in-suit broadly relates to the storage of broadcast content.

Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), an affiliate of prolific inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild, has added its first 2018 cases to the campaign that it began back in March 2015. The new defendants are APX Group (Vivint) (2:18-cv-00102) and Link Interactive (1:18-cv-00014), sued in the District of Utah, and Frontpoint Security Solutions (1:18-cv-00187), sued in the District of Delaware. The sole patent patent-in-campaign broadly relates to the storage of broadcast content, with the latest infringement accusations focused on the provision of smart home systems, specifically those offering storage of security video footage.

Over the past few weeks, inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild has filed new rounds of cases through three of his existing subsidiaries—Geographic Location Services, LLC (GLS); Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS); and Symbology Innovations, LLC. On November 14, he also created two more entities in Texas (Location Based Services, LLC and Rothschild Biometric Systems, LLC), continuing a general trend over the last year of moving his litigation from elsewhere (principally Delaware and Florida) to the Eastern District of Texas.

Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS) has added another case to its sole litigation campaign, suing Comcast for the second time over the same patent (8,856,221), this time through subsidiary Fandango (2:16-cv-00934). The ‘221 patent generally relates to the storage of broadcast content, and FandangoNow is the accused product. The new case comes as five of the six cases that RBDS filed earlier in 2016 have either been dismissed or are about to be.

Now that all 12 of its 2015 cases have been dismissed, most with prejudice, and some following settlements, Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS) has refreshed its streaming media campaign with six new filings. The NPE sued AT&T (2:16-cv-00385) on April 8 and Barnes & Noble (2:16-cv-00402), Plex (2:16-cv-00404), Rhapsody (2:16-cv-00403), Sony (2:16-cv-00405), and Spotify (2:16-cv-00406) on April 13. As in its previous cases, including those filed against Comcast, Crunchyroll, Vimeo, and VUDU, RBDS accuses the defendants of infringing a single patent (8,856,221) that generally concerns storage of broadcast content.

The number of infringement suits filed by NPEs controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild sharply increased last year, with over 140 patent cases filed in 2015 compared to just 35 in 2014. In fact, according to RPX’s 2015 NPE Activity: Highlights report published on January 4, 2016, Rothschild ranked first among the top ten NPEs by campaign defendants added in 2015.

A new entity run by Leigh Rothschild, Rothschild Broadcast Distribution Systems, LLC (RBDS), filed its first round of litigation against Comcast, Crunchyroll, Discovery Communications, NGC Network, Univision,UStream, VBrick, Vimeo, VUDU, and Wistia. The entity is asserting one patent concerning cloud-based media storage and delivery (8,856,221). Like most patents asserted by Rothschild-related entities, Leigh Rothschild is the sole inventor of the patent-in-suit. Defendants’ media streaming services are accused of infringing the asserted patent. RPX reviewed the patent-in-suit as part of an open market opportunity in November 2014 (Ariel Innovations 2 – OMA).