RPX took note of eleven patent transfers to NPEs recorded during the first half of November 2016. Assignees included entities controlled by Wi-LAN, Inc.; Marathon Patent Holdings, LLC; or IP Valuation Partners LLC; NPEs apparently affiliated with Intellectual Ventures LLC or Equitable IP Corporation; and entities managed by Erik Stamell, Leigh M. Rothschild, or Nicolas J. Labbit. Also this month, BlackBird Tech LLC, which has waged 11 litigation campaigns to date, acquired a patent that was asserted against 70 companies in a large NPE campaign that closed earlier this year.

eCeipt LLC, a Texas NPE affiliated with IP Valuation Partners LLC (IPVal), has resumed its retail receipt campaign, filing four new lawsuits against Ann (2:16-cv-01105), Best Buy (2:16-cv-01106), Caleres (2:16-cv-01111), and Recreational Equipment (2:16-cv-01112). These latest cases are eCeipt’s first new litigation since the August dismissal of its case against GNC Holdings (2:16-cv-00419), which followed the dismissal of all other suits in the campaign in January-March. The plaintiff’s newest complaints assert the same, single patent-in-campaign (8,643,875), which generally relates to point-of-sale (POS) kiosks that allow a customer to select a printed or emailed store receipt. Defendants are each accused of infringement through POS systems that offer both types of receipt.

Since April 2015, seven NPEs managed by two partners at IP Valuation Partners LLC have collectively filed over 30 patent infringement suits against operating companies. Six of these NPEs were incorporated in Texas in 2015. (Gene Reader LLC was incorporated in Texas in 2014.) Each NPE is managed by IP Valuation’s Jason Bourgeois (a former patent agent trained in biomedical engineering) or Jonathan Szarzynski (a former patent licensing director at IPNav). Spangler Law P.C. represents all seven of the NPEs in litigation.