Since late last year, RPX has flagged three batches of security agreements—each batch covering six different patent portfolios—all apparently involving the same third-party funder. Of the 18 funded patent portfolios, all but one has spawned new litigation campaigns, four having started last month. Meanwhile, public records provide hints as to the possible identity of the funder here—helpful hints, since the plaintiffs litigating in the Northern District of California or the District of New Jersey have apparently skirted, so far, respective disclosure requirements in those venues.

Throughout late 2021, RPX reported new litigation initiated by an apparently unrelated group of plaintiffs that had granted security interests in their portfolios to the same funder. Now, a second batch of security agreements, involving a different set of six patent holders, has been recorded with the USPTO—suggesting that a new wave of financed campaigns is coming. In fact, one of those campaigns began this week.

Inventor-controlled 3D Surfaces, LLC (f/k/a Surface3D LLC) has filed its first litigation, suing Dell (6:21-cv-01107) in the Western District of Texas over the provision of devices (i.e., desktops, laptops, and tablets) that support Microsoft’s DirectX 11 multimedia application programming interfaces (APIs) and “higher 3D graphics technology”. The plaintiff asserts two patents, broadly directed to rendering objects through a graphics processing unit (GPU).