Stingray IP Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation, has filed an Eastern District of Texas suit against ASSA ABLOY (2:24-cv-00159), targeting the support of certain wireless communications standards (i.e., Wi-Fi and ZigBee) within a wide array of devices, including bridges, card readers, gateways, modules, and smart locks, as well as related software products. After multiple strategic shifts, Acacia—in partnership with its majority shareholder Starboard Value—now characterizes itself as “an opportunistic capital platform that purchases businesses based on the differentials between public and private market valuations” but maintains a legacy “Patent Licensing, Enforcement and Technologies Business” that has not “obtain[ed] control of any new patent portfolios” since 2021.

The Eastern District of Texas jury that recently returned a roughly $37.5M verdict against TP-Link in favor of Atlas Global Technologies LLC received into evidence US sales data that the plaintiff, not the defendant, produced. That data originated with independent third-party International Data Corporation (IDC) and was deemed unassailable at trial as the sales data for the jury to use as an “appropriate remedy” for the prejudice imposed on Atlas Global for the failure to timely receive actual US sales data for the accused products. TP Link protested that reliance on the IDC data could hike any lump sum damages award against it by as much as $18.5M and characterized the use of that data as clear error, suggesting a basis for a future appeal.

This past week, an Eastern District of Texas jury returned a verdict against TP-Link, awarding plaintiff Atlas Global Technologies LLC nearly $37.5M in lump sum damages. The verdict followed a relatively unusual runup to trial that included deeming sales data from an independent third-party source as established facts (which TP-Link argued is a clear error that might inappropriately hike any lump sum damages award by about $18.5M), removing multiple prior art references from the case as not predating certain provisional applications, and rejecting an eleventh-hour attempt to postpone the trial to December. Atlas Global, a subsidiary of publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation, sued TP-Link back in November 2021, alleging infringement of eight former NEWRACOM patents (five of which were tried to the recent jury) through the provision of certain Wi-Fi 6-compliant devices. Active defendants in this campaign include Acer, also sued in the Eastern District of Texas, and ASUSTek, Dell, D-Link, HP, OnePlus, Sercomm, and Unizyx (Zyxel), all sued in the Western District of Texas.

Acacia Research Corporation has expanded litigation over its Wi-Fi 6 portfolio, subsidiary Atlas Global Technologies LLC suing Dell (6:23-cv-00050) and HP Inc. (6:23-cv-00349) in separate Western District of Texas complaints. Ten former NEWRACOM patents are asserted in each new complaint. The cases look headed to the courtroom of District Judge Alan D. Albright, who is already presiding over 2021 suits in this campaign filed against ASUSTek, OnePlus, and Sercomm, as well as over 2022 suits against D-Link and Unizyx (Zyxel). Over in the Eastern District of Texas, active litigation continues in a 2021 case filed against TP-Link and in a 2022 case filed against Acer after suits against Samsung (back in December 2021) and Arcadyan Technology (this past April) have ended.

Last week, Atlas Global Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation, filed a motion to effect alternative service on Chinese defendant TP-Link in an Eastern District of Texas case brought in November 2021. After explaining prior service efforts, the plaintiff requests leave to serve “through the following alternative means: (1) service via Defendants’ U.S. subsidiary; and/or (2) service via known outside counsel for Defendants”. This motion joins a parallel request, pending since January in an Western District of Texas case in the same campaign, this one against ASUSTek, a Taiwanese defendant—as well as a growing cadre of cases, particularly in Texas, in which plaintiffs turn to alternate service on foreign defendants. The Federal Circuit has recently refused to address objections regarding this practice, at least in the context of a petition for a writ of mandamus. 

Atlas Global Technologies LLC, an Acacia Research Corporation plaintiff, has added one more case in each of the two districts in which it began its sole litigation campaign over former NEWRACOM patents this past August. BBK Electronics (OnePlus) (6:21-cv-01217) has been tagged in the Western District of Texas, where ASUSTek and Sercomm are already in suit; TP-Link (2:21-cv-00430), in the Eastern District of Texas, joining a case in progress there against Samsung—but stayed in light of a notice of settlement filed earlier this month. With the addition of one newly litigated patent, against only TP-Link, the number of wireless communications patents now in suit in the campaign has grown to ten.

Publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation made headlines earlier this month with its offer to acquire Comtech Telecommunications, described as a “global provider of next-generation 911 emergency systems and secure wireless communications technologies”, for $790M in cash. This week, the NPE also announced a development in its litigation campaign asserting patents received from chip maker NEWRACOM.

Acacia Research Corporation released its second quarter financials on August 16, reporting higher year-over-year licensing revenue and a number of settlements across multiple enforcement campaigns. While Acacia has completed fewer patent acquisitions so far this year (as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020), a Q2 transaction has already given way to a new litigation campaign, begun earlier this month.

In March, RPX flagged the assignment of hundreds of US patent assets from chip maker NEWRACOM to Acacia Research Corporation’s Atlas Global Technologies, LLC—which has just opened up its first campaign with suits against ASUSTek (6:21-cv-00820), Samsung (2:21-cv-00304), and SerComm (6:21-cv-00818). Each filed in the Eastern or Western District of Texas, Atlas Global’s complaints target various devices with Wi-Fi capabilities that are alleged to practice the e 802.11ax-2021 standard, identifying long lists of accused products including access points, adapters, cameras, desktop computers, e-readers, gateways, laptops, mini PCs, motherboards, phones, routers, set-top boxes, and televisions. An overlapping set of nine patents are asserted, all developed by NEWRACOM, a California-based fabless company formed in 2014 by a group of over 20 individuals from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

Chip maker NEWRACOM has joined the growing ranks of operating companies to divest patents to NPEs. According to USPTO records, the California-based fabless company—formed in 2014 by a group of over 20 individuals from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)—assigned hundreds of homegrown US patent assets, as well as a number of counterparts in Asia and Europe, to an Acacia Research Corporation subsidiary last month.