Entropic Patents Challenged at PTAB; Push Data Campaign Grows; MyPort Case Closes
It was an average week all around, with 31 new patent filings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) – all inter partes reviews (IPRs) – and 67 new filings in district court.
The bulk of this week’s new PTAB filings (a total of 19) were petitions challenging patents owned and asserted by Entropic Communications LLC [associated with SoftBank Group Corp.] (discussed further below). Other notable filings include petitions challenging patents held by Softex [associated with SoftBank Group Corp.], Dental Imaging Technologies [associated with Envista Holdings Corporation], Resonant Systems [d/b/a RevelHMI], Immersion Corp, and Dsm IP Assets BV [associated with DSM-Firmenich AG].
The PTAB also issued 30 institution decisions this week with 14 institution grants and 16 institution denials (15 based on the merits and one procedural denial). Mercedes received two favorable institutions on its petitions challenging two Deadalus Prime [associated with Daedalus Group LLC] patents. Other auto companies, Porsche and Volkswagen also received favorable decisions on their petitions challenging one Yechezkal Evan Spero patent. Intel received favorable institution decisions on six petitions challenging six AX Wireless patents. The one procedural denial was a petition filed by Intel against an AX Wireless [associated with SY Ventures] patent. The denial was based on a ranking of multiple petitions against the same patent.
The PTAB issued two final written decisions this week, both finding all challenged claims unpatentable in two petitions filed by Amazon challenging two (at least partially-funded) Wag Acquisition patents.
There were also settlements in several notable PTAB cases this week, including litigation between Thales Visionix [associated with Thales SA] and Meta, and the apparently funded Myport and Samsung (discussed below). It also appears that after settling the district court case in November 2023, Sonrai Memory Limited [associated with Atlantic IP Services Limited] and Apple have settled all outstanding IPR disputes as well.
At the district court, we mainly saw continuations of known campaigns with ten new filings from Push Data [associated with Equitable IP Corporation] (discussed below) and six new filings from Linfo IP LLC [associated with Pueblo Nuevo]. Several plaintiffs associated with Leigh M. Rothschild also continued campaigns including, Display Technologies, Mobile Health Innovative, and Quantum Technology Innovations LLC. Similarly, plaintiffs associated with Jeffrey M. Gross also continued litigation (in the case of Gamehancement) and began new campaigns (in the case of Webcon Vectors).
Entropic Patents Challenged
More than half of this week’s new PTAB filings were IPRs challenging patents owned and asserted by Entropic Communications LLC [associated with SoftBank Group Corp.]. Seventeen of these petitions were filed by Comcast challenging 10 of the 12 patents asserted against Comcast by Entropic in district court. Cox filed two petitions, challenging two of the same ten patents, also asserted against it in district court.
Entropic launched a widespread campaign against major cable company providers, including Comcast, Cox, and Charter in February 2023 (for Comcast and Cox) and April 2022 (Charter), asserting combinations of 14 patents received from MaxLinear, generally targeting the provision of cable and internet services. Entropic has also targeted these same defendants, as well as DISH and DirecTV in subsequent lawsuits, asserting additional patents. The Charter case settled in December of 2023, but cases against Comcast and Cox (now consolidated) remain pending.
Push Data Presses More Defendants
Push Data [associated with Equitable IP Corporation] filed another ten complaints in its long-running campaign. Push Data began its campaign in 2020 and has since filed fifty lawsuits asserting combinations of four patents that allegedly provide a user with the capability to receive information based on the user’s position via (fittingly) push notifications. Push Data targets the various mobile or desktop applications and websites that support push notifications provided by a wide range of defendants, including retailers (e.g., Wayfair, Nordstrom, Pacific Sunwear, Office Depot, Macy’s, Barnes and Noble), restaurants (e.g., First Watch, Smashburger), insurance companies (e.g., State Farm, Progressive Casualty Insurance), banks (e.g., Citibank).
MyPort Case Comes to a Close
Samsung Electronics and MyPort appear to have reached a settlement. MyPort filed suit against Samsung in April 2022 in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting three patents generally relating to “the use of speech recognition and image recognition to create searchable tags as associated metadata for images” and targeting Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. According to USPTO assignment records, MyPort appears to have received funding from LIT-US CHISUM 22-A LLC, who holds a security interest in the asserted patents.
In October 2022, Samsung filed IPRs challenging all of the asserted patents and the PTAB instituted each of these petitions in April 2023. However, Judge Gilstrap denied a stay pending the IPRs in June of 2023 and the case moved forward. Jury selection was slated for February 5, 2024, but the parties filed a notice of settlement just two weeks prior. Settlement was finalized in the district court and in the IPRs this week.
Links to the cases discussed above and more are available in the Weekly UP, which can be found here.
Image Source: Deposit Photos
Author: Devon
Image ID: 41966485
Kelly Hughes
Kelly Hughes is Senior Patent Counsel at Unified Patents, LLC where she handles PTAB filings including inter partes reviews and ex parte reexamination. Prior to Unified Kelly was a litigator […see more]
