IP Edge LLC affiliate Anuwave LLC has rebooted its litigation campaign with a new round of filings, shifting application of the sole text messaging patent-in-suit from the provision of mobile banking services to the provision of “text security services”—i.e., security apps that locate a mobile device by sending it a text message from another device. The new complaints hit Avast (1:18-cv-00506), BitDefender (1:18-cv-00507), BullGuard (1:18-cv-00508), Symantec (1:18-cv-00509), Total Defense (1:18-cv-00510) and Webroot (1:18-cv-00511) in the District of Delaware and Sophos (1:18-cv-10655) in the District of Massachusetts, where prior defendants in the campaign, numbering close to 50, have typically been banks.

IP Edge LLC affiliate Anuwave LLC has filed its first new litigation since January, accusing Capitol Federal Savings Bank (1:17-cv-01054), Community Banks of Colorado (1:17-cv-01848), JPMorgan Chase (Chase Bank) (1:17-cv-01056), and TCF Financial (1:17-cv-01082) of infringing a single text messaging patent through the provision of mobile banking services. These latest complaints follow the dismissal of Anuwave’s last nine active lawsuits earlier this year, with eight cases dismissed with prejudice throughout February and March and a single suit against Evergreen Bank Group (1:17-cv-00479) dismissed without prejudice in late June.

Anuwave has added a third wave to its banking campaign, asserting the same text messaging patent (8,295,862) against seven more financial institutions: Associated Banc-Corporation (1:16-cv-cv-09925), BankFinancial (1:16-cv-cv-09923), Community Savings Bank (1:16-cv-cv-09927), First American Bank (1:16-cv-cv-09921), First Personal Financial (1:16-cv-cv-09915), Huntington Bancshares (1:16-cv-cv-09918), and Royal Financial (1:16-cv-cv-09920). Mobile banking applications are the accused products in this campaign; with these new filings, the number of defendants is now over three dozen.

Roughly one year after the last of the eight cases that Novocrypt LLC filed in February 2015 was dismissed, the NPE has revived its sole litigation campaign with a second wave. Novocrypt has filed new cases against ASUS (5:16-cv-00108), BLU Products (5:16-cv-00109), Coolpad Technologies (5:16-cv-00110), Kyocera (5:16-cv-00111), Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (5:16-cv-00112), and Nokia (5:16-cv-00113), accusing the defendants of infringement through the sale of smartphones or tablets. A single patent (7,743,213), generally related to a portable storage device with network capability, is again asserted in these recent complaints, but the focus on smartphones and tablets, although predicted over a year ago, is new.

Texas NPE Peppermint Hills LLC has asserted a single patent (8,131,217) generally related to identifying a device via Bluetooth against Adidas, AliphCom, Garmin, Nike, Pebble Technology, Sigma Sport, Timex, TomTom, and Under Armour. The defendants are accused of infringement through provision of smartwatches and other wearable computing devices. Peppermint’s complaints mark the third time an NPE has asserted a former TeliBrahma Technologies patent acquired from Allied Security Trust (as Cactus Flower) on the same day in 2015.

Having secured apparent settlements in 16 of 17 cases that it filed on November 30, 2015, Texas NPE Anuwave LLC has added a second round of cases to its litigation campaign against financial services companies. The 15 new defendants are all banks, including Cathay Bank (2:16-cv-00276), Community National Bank (2:16-cv-00278), Regions Bank (2:16-cv-00285), and US Bank (2:16-cv-00288). Anuwave asserts a single patent (8,295,862) generally related to text messaging. Once again, the defendants are accused of infringement through provision of mobile banking applications.

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.

On December 1, 2015, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), approved by the US Supreme Court in April 2015, took effect. The amendments touch several aspects of litigation in federal court but primarily focus on earlier stages, including pleading requirements, initial case management, and the scope of discovery. The changes appear to have motivated a significant number of filings in the weeks before the effective date of the changes, as over 580 patent infringement cases, including nearly 500 NPE cases, were filed in the last two weeks of November.