Posts Tagged: "patent filings roundup"

Numbers were relatively stable last week, with the district courts seeing 57 new patent filings and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) seeing 25 petitions (two post grant reviews [PGRs] and 23 inter partes reviews [IPRs]). A big chunk of the PTAB action was against Ocean Semiconductor LLC by Applied Materials, Inc., who filed five against the litigation financed entity (Fullbrite Capital Partners, LLC), and six filed by Lumenis Ltd. against BTL Healthcare Technologies A.S in an apparent litigation-free freedom-to-operate action. Bank of America filed a few challenges against NantWorks; Rothschild subsidiaries filed a number of district court complaints; and two IPRs were filed and instituted against the IPValue Management, LLC-run Monterey Research semiconductor suit—one by Qualcomm, one by STMicroelectronics; and ditto for two by Freeman Capital Partners-run FG SRC LLC—one by Xilinx and one by Intel and Xilinx. 

In a relatively subdued week, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) saw 35 challenges and the district courts 53 new patent filings. Those challenges included a slew against Centripetal Networks and Stratosaudio patents, as well as a number of memory authentication district court campaigns launched, including one major new non-practicing entity (NPE) suit by Causam Enterprises against Ecobee, Itron, Residio, and Alarm.com for patents related to power consumption.

District court patent filings rebounded a bit with 80 this week, buoyed by a new financial services campaign, Peregrin Licensing LLC, from an older publicly traded non-practicing entity (NPE), Quest Patent Research Corporation; further bolstering the numbers were 10 new suits in an ongoing Equitable IP campaign against retailers, Consolidated Transactions LLC. As for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), filings were normal, with 27 inter partes reviews (IPRs) and two post grant reviews (PGRs). The PTAB this week denied a number of IPRs under Fintiv related to ongoing International Trade Commission (ITC) trials (with the usual placeholder stayed district court litigations attached); this week it was Roku benefitting from Fintiv, with the latest Universal Electronics IPRs getting denied. The long-running Ancora Technologies, Inc. assertion has moved on to additional defendants and a number of parties filed IPRs against the Magentar-Capital-backed Arigna Technologies this week.

It was a busy week for patent filings in the district courts, with 113 complaints filed, fueled particularly by nearly 50 (!) IP Edge complaints, primarily filed in the Western District of Texas’s Waco Division; the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), on the other hand, was slightly down, with 29—the bulk coming from Intel counterpunching with seven challenges against AQUIS-asserted patents. 

It was a pretty normal week patent filings-wise, with 65 district court complaints and 38 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) petitions filed, all inter partes reviews (IPRs). “Frozen Assets Asserted”: I’ve heard of castles built on sand and castles built in the sky, but this patent is about those built of ice—and the apparent cutthroat nature of the niche but seemingly quite profitable business. Ice Castles, LLC, according to them, is a Utah-based “awe-inspiring, must-see winter phenomenon built with hundreds of thousands of icicles that brings fairy tales to life.” Per them, founder Brent Christensen began experimenting with ice buildings as a hobby in the winter of 2009, and the following year, made one for a local resort; he patented his method of making these ice structures, which was granted in 2013. His business flourished, as he started both making ice castles, selling tickets, and leasing and managing other destination locations in other states, including New Hampshire. Well, this week they sued Harbor Enterprises Marketing & Productions, Lester Spear, and Cameron Clan Snack Co. LCC on U.S. Patent 8,511,042, claiming the Maine-based company had constructed an infringing ice castle in Maine in 2021, and charged an admission fee, including multiple photos of the Maine location in their complaint.

It seems non-practicing entity (NPE) semiconductor/chip litigation has really come to dominate both the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and the district courts’ dockets this past year. Another average week at the PTAB saw 26 patent filings (five post grant reviews [PGRs] and 21 inter partes reviews [IPRs]), and the district courts saw another heavy week, with 89 new complaints. A slew of IPR challenges on chip patents owned and asserted by Arbor Global Strategies, LLC [Arbor Company, LLP] were instituted; Google, Samsung and LG were denied institution on IPR challenges for five litigation-related patents under Fintiv and a Waco-division Western District of Texas trial date; a slew of IPRs against NPE Bell Semiconductor, LLC [owned by Hilco d/b/a Hilco Global] were instituted; Qualcomm earned a few more institutions against the Vector Capital Corp.-NPE Monterey Research; and Huawei earned institutions against some of the dozen or so patents Craig Etchegoyen’s WSOU entities asserted against them before Judge Albright in the Waco division of the Western District of Texas.

A quiet week resulted in 28 petitions at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), mostly related to preexisting suits, though with a perhaps surprising number of semiconductor patents challenged, and three Qualcomm challenges to Monterey Research (i.e., Vector Capital) patents were all instituted; in general, the district courts had a light week with 55 patent filings, many complaints adding new defendants for old campaigns. Some of the recently filed complaints in the longest-running Blitzsafe campaign against were dismissed without prejudice against automotive OEMs; and probably most notable, in a Fintiv denial, a panel cited the global pandemic and the uncertainty of trial schedules in weighing that factor neutrally (while still exercising their discretion for other reasons), as discussed below. Sonos hit back with inter partes reviews (IPRs) against Google patents in their ongoing dispute.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had the usual 30 or so petitions this week (32, to be exact), with a fair number of procedural denials of concurrently filed petitions (i.e., the one-petition rule from the July 2019 updated Trial Practice Guide). District court patent filings sat at 71, with a significant number of Leigh Rothschild suits adding new defendants

After almost 200 district court patent filings last week, things settled back into their recent rhythm, with an average 66 district court complaints (including some “Schedule A” brand anti-counterfeiting complaints) and 28 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) petitions filed (all inter partes reviews [IPRs]) this week. There were no IP Edge or Rothschild complaints this week, after last week’s busy filings. There were no Fintiv denials again this week; the PTAB petitions included three IPRs filed by Microsoft against Daedalus Blue LLC against patents originally assigned to IBM (more below), as well as various patents related to ongoing challenges (like the rolling Lasik J&J/Alcon fight), more fracking IPRs, more Peloton-related challenges (those bikes make big bucks!), and a curious rechargeable-battery suit between a Taiwanese U.S. patent holder and a U.S. rechargeable battery company based in Michigan, A123 Systems, LLC. Those batteries are supplied to NEC and other device manufacturers, so what looks at first blush like a small suit probably is set to have broader implications. Nokia had a Google challenge denied, and two Ideahub [Synkloud] challenges by Microsoft were denied as well, on the merits; and more Uniloc/Fortress IP claims were cancelled on final written decision.

The district courts saw an explosion of new patent filings last week (183, more than 100 over the weekly average to date), driven largely by dozens and dozens of new IP Edge complaints filed by an array of entities. There were no discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and Board filings were normal, with 32, including another post grant review (PGR) in the ongoing iRobot/SharkNinja battle. A number of Longhorn Vaccine’s diagnostics patents were challenged by competitor Spectrum Solutions LLC; and Johnson & Johnson continued to be challenged at the Board by Alcon on various Lasik patents.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had a light week, with 23 patent filings, all inter partes reviews (IPRs), including a host of Volkswagen IPR petitions filed against apparent Stratosaudio, Inc. making up the biggest single chunk. Amneal provoked, and has now received, an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) suit by CMP Development over their Orange Book-listed CaroSpir® products and potential generic challenge; Lenovo had some Interdigital IPRs denied, some granted, this week, and  Google filed IPRs against another Dominion Harbor subsidiary, Soverign Peak Ventures, LLC.

A slightly higher than average 38 petitions were filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last week, all inter partes reviews (IPRs), a number again propped up by five more patent filings against the prolific Craig Etchegoyen-led WSOU. That entity’s near-200 patents and 200 lawsuits brought in the district court represent roughly 5% of all 2020 litigation, and they show no signs of slowing their aggressive stance. District court litigation was roughly stable, with a few new campaigns popping up as outlined below. It’s worth noting—not because it’s evidence of any trend or even statistically significant, but just given the rarity—that for the first time since I started writing these updates more than a year ago, the USPTO did not issue any Fintiv trial date or other procedural denials.

District court complaints rose to 93 this week, while Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) cases fell to 28 (27 inter partes reviews [IPRs] and a post grant review [PGR]), a number propped up in part by Google filing a number of petitions against serial assertor Express Mobile, LLC and ZTE filing a few more against the perennial WSOU. Additional Facebook petitions were denied against Western District of Texas assertor, Onstream Media Corporation; Google filed a spate of petitions against longtime serial assertor Express Mobile; and there were a not-surprising-but-still-remarkable number of IP Edge complaints filed last week, as seen below, from a wide range of subsidiaries.

With a pretty-standard 30 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) petitions and 70+ district court complaints filed this week, it’s worth noting that the steady stream of IP Edge and Rothschild suits hasn’t let up, that the WSOU matters continue to bump up the numbers in both, and that Magentar Capital-related petitions and cases continue to flourish.  To wit, ZTE pulled the trigger on a few inter partes reviews (IPRs) against some of the WSOU patents asserted against them, showing a little backbone against the frequent assertor; Verizon has continued to trickle out the IPRs against Huawei; Gree earned another few denials under the Board’s discretion (and have now on a per-named-entity basis probably the biggest beneficiaries of it). New NPE of unknown origin Sidekick Technology, LLC was DJ’d by a band of online car sales sites in 2:21-cv-06737 over 12 patents; and the same time that Samsung won some IPRs against Solas OLED, the Magnetar-backed entity hit them back (again) in District court.

It was another typical Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)/district court split this week, with 33 petitions (two of them post grant reviews [PGRs]) and 71 district court complaints filed. There’s a seemingly new non-practicing entity (NPE) campaign by Jeffrey Gross, Netcom Global Solutions, LLC, with a few new filings, a Chinese e-Bike manufacturer, Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Tech., Co., Ltd & Unicorn Global, Inc.] who has sued a number of companies over U.S. patents in district court; and somehow the Symbology (and other Rothschild) suits continue to find defendants to sue, this time targeting mall storefronts David Yurman and Perfumania.com. A number of petitions were filed against NPE K.Mizra (also associated with NPE Ginegar LLC, who last week continued to assert U.S. Patent 9,367,531).