Kaldren patent determined to be likely invalid

On April 11, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 6,820,807 owned and asserted by Kaldren, LLC, an IP Edge subsidiary and well known NPE. The '807 patent, directed to formatting digital data into an encoded pattern (such as a QR code), has been asserted against 39 different companies since only March 2017 including such companies as JP Morgan, Snap, HSBC, General Mills, J.D. Power and Associates, Allstate, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

To read the decision and to view the entire proceeding, visit our PTAB Portal. 

Wireless Monitoring Systems patent determined to be likely invalid

On April 11, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 9,280,886 owned and asserted by Wireless Monitoring Systems, LLC, an NPE controlled by Bradley D. Liddle (an individual connected to Personal Audio and several other patent assertion entities). The '886 patent, directed to circuit monitoring devices (such as those employed in motion detectors, smoke detectors and the like), has been asserted in multiple litigations against such companies as AT&T, Comcast, ADT, Frontpoint Security, CenturyLink, Charter Communications.

To read the decision and to view the entire proceeding, visit our PTAB Portal. 

2017 NPE Activity Report: Cloud Litigation

Overview

In stark contrast to recent filing trends, the volume of Cloud litigation increased more than 33% from 339 cases (between 2014 and 2015) to 454 cases (between 2016-2017) during the same period that overall patent litigation posted a 42% decrease.  From 2012 to 2017, NPE litigation activity for cloud technologies remained consistently high (greater than 92% of all cloud litigation) and amounted to a total of 1,058 cases over the last 5 years. Notably,  Cloud litigation involving Storage & Synchronization increased from 7% (2016) to 27% (2017). For more information about our Cloud zone, see our zone definition.

Figure 1: Year to year, NPEs consistently account for over 92% of all cloud litigation.

Figure 2: While overall patent litigation has steadily declined since 2015, cloud litigation in 2016 and 2017 is well above the volume of new cases seen in 2015 and earlier. For full patent litigation data, visit our Public Portal.

Figures 3: From 2016 to 2017, litigation involving Storage & Synchronization technologies increased 20% and File Hosting & Sharing litigation increased 5%.

Figure 4: From 2012-2017, litigation involving access systems (i.e. network, web, mobile, security systems) have been the most widely litigated in the cloud zone. 

Definitions

The following designations are used to identify entities involved in patent disputes. Aggregators such as IP Edge and Dominion Harbor are counted as PAEs but because of obscure ownership we do not break them out.

Non Practicing Entity (NPE) = Company which derives the majority of its total revenue from Patent Licensing activities.

Operating Company or Op. Co. = Company which derives most of its total revenue from Product Sales or Services. Could be an SME or a large company.

Other Entity = Universities / Non-Profits / Government / Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

NPE (Patent Assertion Entities) = Entity whose primary activity is licensing patents and acquired most of its patents from another entity

NPE (Small Company) = Entity whose original activity was providing products and services, but now is primarily focused on monetizing its own patent portfolio.

NPE (Individual) = Entity owned or controlled by an individual inventor who is primarily focused on monetizing inventions patents by that individual inventor.

Methodology

Statistics include litigations initiated by NPEs or Declaratory Judgments (DJs) initiated by operating companies against NPEs.

Total number of reported cases can vary. Unified made its best attempt to eliminate mistaken or duplicative filings.

Unified strives to accurately identify NPEs through all available means, such as court filings, public documents, and product documentation.

Realtime Adaptive patent challenged as likely invalid

On April 7, 2018, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,934,535 owned and asserted by Realtime Adaptive Streaming, LLC, a Realtime Data affiliate and well-known NPE. The '535 patent, directed to a selecting an asymmetric compressor algorithm
for compressing data, storing the compressed data, and decompressing the data, has been asserted in multiple cases against such companies as Samsung, Adobe, Apple, Netflix, Sony, Polycom, Cisco, Hulu, Echostar, Amazon, Sling TV and others.

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

Blue Sky (Dominion Harbor) patent determined to be likely invalid

On April 9, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 8,265,691 owned and asserted by Blue Sky Networks, LLC, a Dominion Harbor subsidiary and well-known NPE. The '691 patent, directed to enhanced wireless handsets operating in a direct handset-to-handset communication mode, was asserted in multiple litigations against such companies as Toyota, Best Buy, MediaTek, Lenovo, BLU, Huawei, and Roche Diabetes Care.

To read the decision and to view the entire proceeding, visit our PTAB Portal.