Alert Signal Intellectual Property, LLC (Alert Signal IP), an apparent affiliate of inventor Fred DuFresne and/or his monetization firms Cerinet USA Inc. and ipCapital Licensing Company (d/b/a Cerinet IP Licensing), has filed suit in the Eastern District of Texas against Apple (2:18-cv-00177). All members of a four-patent family are asserted in the new complaint, which targets iPhones running iOS 11 or above, alleging infringement through aspects of its Do Not Disturb feature that disable alerts when the user is driving by detecting the phone’s physical velocity (“Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode) and that allow priority messages to trigger alerts.

In the second half of May 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. One of those transactions involved a patent that has already been asserted in litigation.

In the second half of November 2015, RPX saw 15 patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. Several of those transactions involved patents that have been recently asserted in litigation against operating companies, including in the barrage of NPE cases that were filed on November 30, 2015, in anticipation of changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In 2010, inventor Fred DuFresne formed two US intellectual property monetization firms—Cerinet USA Inc. and ipCapital Licensing Company—one or both of which has been doing business as Cerinet IP Licensing since January 2015. Over the past couple of years, multiple NPEs affiliated with DuFresne and/or Cerinet IP have launched litigation campaigns in disparate fields of technology, including three in just the past couple of weeks. On October 16, 2015, Cerinet IP formed Texas subsidiary Embedded Systems Products Intellectual Property, LLC (ESP IP), and on October 27, 2015, DuFresne/Cerinet IP appears to have formed Alert Signal Intellectual Property, LLC  (Alert Signal IP) and Catharon Products Intellectual Property, LLC (Catharon Products IP), both in Pennsylvania. ESP IP, Alert Signal IP, and Catharon Products IP have all filed litigations in the weeks since their formation, following a familiar pattern for DuFresne and Cerinet IP.