Pleading in a new District of Delaware complaint that its “technological foundation” is its “patented deep-linking technology”, MetaRail has sued Alphabet (Google) (1:23-cv-01116) over the use of “computer systems for generating certain deep-linked Google Ads”. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Granbury, Texas, MetaRail claims to connect “sites, apps and devices across the Internet via commerce signals, rather than keywords”. Prior to this case, the company had no history of filing patent litigation in the US; late this summer, though, MetaRail secured litigation funding.

A public but well-hidden paper trail confirms the involvement of an established litigation funder in a new, inventor-controlled campaign. RPX’s review of related public records indicates that the same financier has also recently provided litigation funding to a past NPE plaintiff (perhaps to reboot a campaign that ended in 2018) as well to a digital commerce company (apparently poised to start litigating its patent portfolio).