Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC, an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC, has filed another case in its litigation campaign over a single patent generally related to a mesh network door locking mechanism. The newest defendant is Verizon (Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless) (2:18-cv-00267), accused of infringement through provision of its SmartHub product, which the plaintiff describes as a “home control system that integrates door locks and garage door openers using mesh network connectivity”. Verizon Wireless joins Creston Electronics and United Technologies as defendants with open cases in the campaign, which has hit over a dozen companies since July 2015.

Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has filed suit against Cisco (2:17-cv-00510), alleging infringement of a single patent (8,035,479) generally related to a mesh network door locking mechanism. Cisco is the tenth defendant sued since this campaign began in July 2015; mesh networking security systems have been at issue throughout. In April 2016, Clean Energy accused AT&T (AT&T Digital Life) of infringement through provision of AT&T Digital Life systems; this newest recent case accuses Cisco of infringement through provision of a home security and automation control panel sold under that AT&T Digital Life brand.

Following apparent settlements with ADT and Vivint, Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC has added SmartLabs (2:16-cv-01212) and Wink (2:16-cv-01213) to its litigation campaign targeting mesh network security systems. The NPE accuses the defendants’ home automation systems of infringing a single patent (8,035,479) generally related to a mesh network door locking mechanism. Since launching this campaign—the first of two campaigns initiated by Clean Energy in 2015—the NPE has sued eight companies over the ‘479 patent; active defendants include AT&T and Frontpoint Security Solutions.

During the second half of August 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. The assignees were Virtual Immersion Technologies LLC (controlled by Erik Stamell, of Equitable IP Corporation); Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC (a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC); an NPE created by IP Valuation Partners LLC; and subsidiaries of two publicly traded NPEs—Wi-LAN, Inc. and Pendrell Corporation.

Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC (CEMS) has added three cases to one of its two active litigation campaigns, suing Cascade Energy (2:16-cv-00995), Schneider Electric (2:16-cv-00996), and Siemens (2:16-cv-00997) over a patent with a long history (6,577,962). The ‘962 patent, which generally relates to forecasting energy usage in real time, issued in June 2003 to Silicon Energy, a small California based energy startup. The defendants’ energy management platforms (i.e. Cascade’s SENSEI, Siemens’s SIMATIC B.Data, and Schneider’s PowerLogic ION EEM) are targeted in the new complaints, which follow by about a decade the first complaints to assert this patent in litigation.

In the second half of July 2016, RPX saw 13 patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. A number of those transactions involved patents that have already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.

Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC launched the first of its two 2015 litigation campaigns in July, suing ADT, Honeywell, and SmartThings over a single patent (8,035,479) generally related to a mesh network door locking mechanism. In the last two weeks, the cases against Honeywell (on April 6) and SmartThings (on April 11) were dismissed with prejudice, with earlier documents suggesting settlements, and Clean Energy has quickly added three more defendants to the campaign: AT&T (2:16-cv-00413), Frontpoint Security (2:16-cv-00414), and Vivint (2:16-cv-00415). The NPE accuses the defendants of infringing the ‘479 patent through provision of their AT&T Digital Life, Vivint SmartHome, and various Frontpoint remote security packages.

In 2015, seven NPEs controlled by Monument Patent Holdings, LLC filed over 40 patent infringement suits against operating companies—a marked increase compared to just nine cases lodged by two Monument entities (DataTech IP, LLC and Optical Tech IP) in 2014. Monument Patent Holdings was incorporated in Texas in December 2013 and is managed by four Dominion Harbor Group, LLC executives: David Pridham, Dominion’s CEO, formerly of IPNav; Matthew DelGiorno, Dominion’s president, formerly of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP; Conner Mowles, Dominion’s CFO, formerly of IPNav; and Lee Bradlee Sheafe, Dominion’s Chief IP Officer.