Arsus final decision affirmed by Federal Circuit

On November 16, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit summarily affirmed the PTAB’s ruling that Arsus's disclaimer of all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,259,494 should be treated as a request for adverse judgment in a summary affirmance under Rule 36, effectively ending the longstanding assertion of those claims. In January 2021, the Board entered adverse judgment against Arsus in IPR2020-00948, Unified Patents, LLC v. Arsus, LLC, in response to Arsus disclaiming all challenged claims. Arsus's counsel filed a Motion to Vacate Judgment arguing that the Board was deprived of subject matter jurisdiction after Arsus's disclaimer. The Board issued an order denying Arsus's motion to vacate and affirming termination of the proceeding.

The ‘494 patent is generally directed towards a rollover prevention apparatus for an automobile. The ‘494 patent has previously been asserted against Tesla Motors. Prior patents in this family were asserted in a case against a BMW dealership in Utah (dismissed on non-infringement).

View Arsus’s district court litigation. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Unified’s in-house counsel, David Seastrunk and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

III Holdings patent challenged

On November 29, 2021, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,271,980, owned by III Holdings 12, LLC, an NPE. The '980 patent is generally directed to managing jobs in a multi-node computing environment. The ‘980 patent is purportedly related to open source container orchestration systems for automating computer applications, such as Kubernetes.

View district court litigations by Intellectual Ventures. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Cono Carrano, Ryan Stronczer, and Sohrab Hajarian of Akin Gump and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Ellyar Barazesh.

Crandall Tech patent successfully challenged

On November 17, 2021, the USPTO issued a final office action rejecting all claims of U.S. Patent 9,645,720 at issue. The '720 patent is related to data sharing, owned by Crandall Technologies LLC, an NPE, and has been asserted against Vudu. The final office action issued roughly 10 months from when Unified filed the request for ex parte reexamination and about 9 months after reexamination was ordered.

View district court litigations by Crandall Technologies. Unified was represented by in-house counsel, Ellyar Barazesh, Jessica L.A. Marks, and Jonathan Stroud, in this proceeding.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90019007.

Another CommWorks Solutions patent challenged

On November 22, 2021, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination against U.S. Patent 6,832,249 owned and asserted by CommWorks Solutions, LLC, an NPE and subsidiary of IP Investments Group LLC. The '249 patent is generally directed to multi-layered internet communication systems that allow for control over quality of service and priority of information delivery. It is being asserted against Comcast and RCN Telecom and is at issue in a declaratory judgment action brought by Altice USA. It was also previously asserted against Skybeam, Mediacom, AMG Technology Investment Group, Consolidated Communications Holdings, and Cable One, Inc.

View district court litigations by CommWorks Solutions. Unified is represented by Raghav Bajaj of Haynes and Boone, LLP and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Michelle Aspen.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90014909.

Gesture Tech patent likely invalid

On November 22, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,933,431, owned by Gesture Technology Partners, LLC. The ‘431 patent is generally related to using human motion as an input device for computers and mobile devices and has been asserted against Huawei, Samsung, Apple, Lenovo, and LG.

View district court litigations by Gesture Technology Partners. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Raghav Bajaj of Haynes and Boone, LLP and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Alyssa Holtslander, in this proceeding.