Since a noticed settlement led to the end of the last active case, against Verizon, in May of last year, the sole litigation campaign of TJTM Technologies LLC has been dormant. Now, though, the plaintiff has returned to litigation, accusing Alphabet (Google) (3:24-cv-01232) of infringing its “Driving Mode” patent through the provision of smartphones that support “Add Mode” and “Driving Mode” features. The Northern District of California case has been initially assigned to Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros.

In a new Northern District of California complaint, TJTM Technologies LLC has accused Verizon (4:22-cv-02081) of infringing its “Driving Mode” patent through the defendant’s provision of its Message+ mobile app, either “preloaded” onto phones that it sells or available for later download. Again asserted is a single patent that SMTM Technology, LLC assigned to TJTM in May 2021, with SMTM having sued first Microsoft and then Apple before the transfer; TJTM, then hitting Samsung, last July. Northern District of California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has conditionally closed the Samsung case in light of the parties’ notice of settlement in principle, filed in January of this year.

TJTM Technologies LLC has sued Samsung (4:21-cv-05500) in the Northern District of California, targeting the “Car Mode” feature (f/k/a “Drive Mode”) on its Galaxy smartphones. The plaintiff asserts a single patent that SMTM Technology, LLC assigned to it this past May, SMTM having litigated the patent twice before, against Microsoft, briefly in 2015 and against Apple, first in 2018, then again in late 2019. The patent names Nick Bovis as its sole inventor; Bovis—the subject of recent federal criminal charges—signed for SMTM on the transfer of assets to the new plaintiff, of which his spouse, a South San Francisco dentist, is the managing member.

Inventor-controlled SMTM Technology, LLC has filed a new Northern District of California complaint against Apple (5:19-cv-08133), accusing the company of infringing the same patent that SMTM briefly asserted in a similar complaint, filed and quickly dismissed without prejudice in 2015. At issue is the same product, the “‘Do Not Disturb’ while driving software” within Apple’s iOS 11. The reboot of this litigation follows the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s July 2019 refusal to institute trial in an inter partes review (IPR) of the asserted patent in response to a petition filed by Unified Patents late last year (IPR2019-00434).

Inventor-controlled SMTM Technology, LLC has filed a new complaint, accusing Apple (3:15-cv-02396) of infringing a single patent generally related to placing a mobile device in an “inactive mode” while paired with a vehicle. The plaintiff briefly asserted the same patent in a barebones, May 2015 complaint filed in the Northern District of California against Microsoft, targeting that company’s Lumia mobile phones; that case was voluntarily dismissed (with prejudice) within one month of its filing. In the new complaint, SMTM Technology’s infringement allegations focus on the “‘Do Not Disturb’ while driving software” within Apple’s iOS 11.