Last month’s review of notable patent assignments considered the movement of assets from Avaya to Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC; from Level 3 Communications to Sandpiper CDN, LLC; from Seiko Epson to IPValue’s 138 East LCD Advancements Ltd. and Lumitek Display Technology Ltd.; from Transaction Security to a “BioCrypt Access”; from Fortress Investment Group LLC’s KIP Prod P1 LP to Prodea Automation LLC; from EMM Patents Ltd. to Empire IP LLC; from Siemens and Abdelsalam Helal to Rokiot USA LLC; and from Proxicom Wireless, LLC to Secure Communication Technologies, LLC. While a couple of these entities again feature prominently, this month’s review extends well beyond them to cover the movement of patents away from other operating companies, as well as within several repeat monetization players.

Late last month, two entities associated with Brian Yates—who oversaw NPEs filing more than 500 patent infringement suits in 2015-2017, and who now has ongoing enforcement efforts in China—assigned patent portfolios to an apparent Delaware NPE controlled by an experienced licensing professional. The transacted portfolios include two patents asserted in a Yates campaign that hit McAfee, ForeScout Technologies, Fortinet (Bradford Networks) and Pulse Secure before ending a mere six months after launch.

iPEL, Inc., the patent licensing firm launched earlier this year by patent attorney Brian Yates, announced on November 28 that it has doubled its capital, bringing the total raised to $200M. In the same press release, the firm warned that “several dozens” of new lawsuits will be filed in China within the week against at least four companies, some with “prominent ‘household’ names”. iPEL reports having filed ten patent infringement suits to date in China, all against ASUS; the lawsuits were filed in October in the specialized IP courts and tribunals of Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi’an.

On October 9, iPEL, Inc., the patent licensing firm launched by patent attorney Brian Yates earlier this year, announced the filing of ten infringement suits against ASUS in China. According to a press release issued by iPEL, the lawsuits were filed in the specialized IP courts and tribunals of Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi’an. This appears to be the start of iPEL’s expected enforcement campaign in Asia, the approach of which RPX predicted back in June.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw activity in August 2018 involving a variety of frequent litigants. This included petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed against two NPEs controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC, INVT SPE LLC and Uniloc 2017 LLC, the latter of which has in recent months cofiled a barrage of lawsuits with subsidiaries of Australian NPE Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited (Uniloc). The PTAB also instituted trial in August for IPRs against Uniloc 2017 and some of its campaign coplaintiffs, and in an IPR against an NPE controlled by patent attorney Brian Yates, whose US litigation has waned as he pursues a new patent licensing initiative through his company iPEL, Inc. Finally, the PTAB issued final decisions in August for IPRs against Uniloc, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill Inc.

Last year, RPX reported that patent attorney Brian Yates—who oversaw NPEs filing more than 500 patent infringement suits in 2015-2016—had formed a new entity, iPEL, Inc., and entered into a financing deal with a private credit manager. Since then, RPX has pointed readers to a number of notable acquisitions by Yates, including from Panasonic and ZTE. Yates has now publicly launched his iPEL business, and while particular attention is being paid to its licensing model, perhaps more interesting is iPEL’s Chinese patent portfolio—the size of which suggests that an enforcement campaign in Asia might be coming.

The USPTO recently made public Panasonic’s February assignment of a digital rights management portfolio to an NPE controlled by Brian Yates. Also among the assignments recorded in mid-March are transfers from Harris Corporation to an IP Valuation Partners LLC affiliate, and from CommScope to DIFF Scale Operation Research, LLC; both NPEs have initiated campaigns this month asserting some of the transacted assets.

USB Technologies, LLC (USB Tech) has filed suit against Kingston Technology (8:17-cv-02235), asserting the same patent, generally related to an SD memory card with built-in USB connectivity, that has been at issue since this campaign began in March 2015. USB Tech’s most recent certificates of interested parties identifies only the plaintiff and defendant, while past disclosures have identified (in July 2017) Red Dragon Innovations, LLC, an entity managed in part by California attorney Daniel C. Cotman, and (through July 2016) Q Patents, Inc., an entity formed by fellow California attorney Brian Yates. Kingston has been accused of infringement through the provision of flash drives that each contain both a USB connector and an Apple Lightning connector.

Four assignments from Transpacific IP Group Limited to Brian Yates were recorded during the second half of December, perhaps signaling that the patent attorney is gearing up for a busy 2018. Also notable among late-December recordings were multiple assignments involving Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd., and an internal transfer to a newly created NPE affiliated with Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC.

Among the assignment records released by the USPTO in early December was a transfer of over 30 patents to a new entity controlled by Brian Yates, including several patents that have been previously litigated against a major networking company. The assignment, executed in June, closely followed a financing deal—one suggesting that 2018 may see a resurgence of activity by Yates-controlled NPEs.