American Vehicular Sciences patent found invalid

On May 19, 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. American Vehicular Sciences, LLC, IPR2016-00364 invalidating all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,043,093, owned and asserted by American Vehicular Sciences, LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation. Acacia, a notorious NPE, is responsible for filing over 250 patent infringement cases in district court since 2014. 

The '093 Patent, which relates to a single side curtain airbag for vehicles, has been asserted in multiple district court cases against various automotive manufacturers and equipment suppliers including Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Hyundai. 

To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, please visit our PTAB Portal. 

Bridge and Post patent challenged as likely invalid

On May 16, 2017, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,657,594, owned and asserted by Bridge and Post, Inc., an NPE created by Don Lloyd Cook. The '594 Patent, which discloses a method for providing directed media to a user, was first asserted in district court in February 2017 against Verizon. 

To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, please visit our PTAB Portal. 

Plectrum patent challenged as likely invalid

On May 15, 2017, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 5,978,951, owned and asserted by Plectrum LLC, a new NPE formed after acquiring several patents formerly owned by Hewlett Packard. The '951 Patent, directed to providing a hardware network address cache, has been asserted in 15 district court cases all of which were filed in February 2017.  

The following companies have been sued by Plectrum:

Textile Computer Systems patent determined to likely be invalid

On May 12, 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 8,505,079, owned and asserted by Textile Computer Systems, Inc., an NPE.  The '079 Patent, which relates to security protocols for use in securing and/or restricting access to personal or other confidential information, has been asserted in multiple district court cases against credit unions and other financial services providers such as Fort Worth and Sabine.

To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, please see our PTAB Portal. 

Kamatani Cloud patent challenged as likely invalid

On May 8, 2017, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 6,873,940, owned and asserted by Kamatani Cloud, LLC, a subsidiary of General Patent Corporation, a well-known NPE. The '940 Patent, which relates to a measurement service system for carrying out remote measurements or telemetry, was first asserted against Animetrics, Inc., a facial recognition technology company. The case settled promptly in September 2016.   

To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, please visit our PTAB Portal.