It was a relatively average week for patent filings in the district court with 59 new complaints. New filings included multiple filings associated with high-volume plaintiffs such as Jeffrey Gross, Leigh Rothschild, as well as a slew of filings from Pueblo Nuevo in a banking campaign. Meanwhile, XR Communications settled three inter partes reviews (IPRs) and filed two new cases against wireless carriers.
It was a somewhat below average week at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) with 14 new petitions filed—thirteen of which were IPRs and one post grant review (PGR). At the Board, Ericsson saw two institutions and a partially successful final written decision in its IPRs against Phillips. While major streaming companies, Disney, Hulu and Netflix, saw institutions in two IPRs challenging Wag Acquisition [of Woddsford Litigation Funding] patents. Dominion entity Redwood Technologies filed a pair of cases against Qualcomm while two of its cases against Texas Instruments were dismissed. Capital-backed Arigna received an unfavorable final written decision regarding one of its former Mitsubishi Electric patents.
Neo Wireless IPRs Success and Failure: The PTAB saw two procedural denials this week of IPRs (one filed by Ford and one filed by Honda) challenging fortress-funded Neo Wireless patents. Both petitions were copycat petitions seeking joinder in earlier-filed IPRs that had already been denied institution. However, Ford and Volkswagen saw success with two IPRs challenging Neo Wireless patents being instituted.
Apex Beam Off Balance: The apparently-funded (per RPX) Apex Beam launched a campaign asserting wireless communications patents against defendants Samsung, TCL, ZTE, and OnePlus, alleging infringement by devices providing 5G functionality. Samsung hit back with IPRs this past spring. Samsung received institutions in two IPRs challenging one patents (joining another institution from last month).
Acacia R2 Solutions Campaign Continues: R2 Solutions LLC, a long-owned portfolio of former Yahoo patents, saw settlements in Hilton IPRs and the district court case also looks to be settling. However the broad campaign continues with a new filing against Cloudera, Inc.
It’s Nerf or Nothin’: Prime Time Toys filed an IPR challenging a Spin Master patent related to a “device for projecting soft-projectiles.” Parent patents to the challenged patent are the subject of an International Trade Commission (ITC) action involving Spin Master, Hasbro, and Prime Time (with an initial determination from the Administrative Law Judge due later this month) and were also challenged by Prime Time in IPRs in August. The parent patents were also the subject of a district court declaratory judgment action by Gel Blaster (also involved with the ITC action) that has since settled.
See here for links to all cases.
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