A couple of weeks ago, RPX reported the assignment of a tranche of patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) to Aido LLC, an entity managed by Texas monetization firm Endpoint IP LLC. This past week a sister affiliate of Aido, Aido Mobility LLC, indeed filed suit, accusing Bank of America (1:19-cv-00465) of infringing four patents from a family generally related to delivering particularized (e.g., location-based) web content, through the provision of its mobile banking app. At issue is the app’s BankAmeriDeals feature, which sends push notifications that identify deals available for a place where the user just shopped, among other types of deal notifications offered. The patents-in-suit, although held by IV until recently, were not among those noted a couple of weeks ago and did not land directly in Aido Mobility’s hands.

The last of the cases in its first round having been dismissed in December, Flectere LLC has reloaded, suing four more retailers in the Eastern District of Texas. In May, the NPE, apparently controlled by a former IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) principal, has asserted up to three patents, generally related to the use of online forms to gather information, against Academy, Office Depot, Sears, and Staples; the new cases accuse Costco (2:19-cv-00017), FedEx (2:19-cv-00018), Target (2:19-cv-00019), and UPS (2:19-cv-00020) of infringement through the operation of their e-commerce platforms.

Proximity Sensors of Texas LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has filed new cases in its campaign over a single patent generally related to an apparatus on an object’s surface that emits light and receives back reflected light. The NPE accuses AMS (AMS-TAOS USA) (4:19-cv-00026) in the Eastern District of Texas and ROHM (ROHM Semiconductor USA) (1:19-cv-00208) in the Northern District of Illinois of direct infringement, calling out their AMS tmd2771/ tmd277x and ROHM rpr0521 sensors, respectively, further alleging indirect infringement through the provision of products (e.g., smartphones and tablets) that include such sensors. In prior cases in the campaign, Proximity Sensors named smartphone and tablet makers themselves—Apple, Huawei, Microsoft, and ZTE—as defendants.

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.

PositionTech LLC, managed by Jonathan Szarzynski of IP Valuation Partners LLC, filed its first infringement suit, accusing The Walt Disney Company (2:16-cv-00150) of infringing two information management patents (6,965,317; 7,061,384). At issue is Disney’s MyMagic+ system, which is described in the complaint as a positional information management system that records user transactions.

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.