CIPSC 2018 Legal Writing Competition Winner Announced

Unified Patents and the Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal are pleased to award the 2018 CIPSC Legal Writing Competition winner, Michael McLaughlin, a 3L at Washington School of Law at American University who received $1,500 for his essay, Computer-Generated Inventions, addressing the legal issues surrounding the patenting of computer-generated inventions.

Pictured (left to right): Kevin Jakel (Unified Patents, CEO), Jonathan Stroud (Unified Patents, Chief IP Counsel), Michael McLaughlin (American University), Troy Sanders (SCU High Tech Law Journal, Editor in Chief).

We would like to thank all of the participants for the dozens of other high-quality submissions received for this contest. The CIPSC Legal Writing Competition is one of the many initiatives offered by Unified to promote innovation and excellence in the IP legal community. For more opportunities to win cash prizes, visit Unified’s prior art crowdsourcing website (PATROLL).

Epic IP patent challenged as likely unpatentable

On November 16, 2018, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 6,434,599 owned and asserted by Epic IP, LLC, an IP Edge subsidiary and well-known NPE. The '599 patent, directed to a system and method for online chatting, has been asserted in district court litigation against Backblaze, Blue Jeans Network, AutoNation, Sharp Electronics, JAND, and Fareportal.  

View Epic IP's district court litigation here. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see our PTAB Portal.

Plectrum claims found unpatentable; Unified is sole RPI

On November 13, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Plectrum, LLC, IPR2017-01430 holding claims 8 and 11 of U.S. Patent 5,978,951 unpatentable. The patent is owned and asserted by Plectrum, LLC, a new NPE formed after acquiring several patents formerly owned by Hewlett Packard. In doing so, the Board rejected Plectrum’s arguments that Unified’s members are real parties-in-interest:

[U]nlike [Applications in Internet Time v. RPX (AIT)] we have no evidence tying Petitioner’s NPE-deterrent activities to any particular member interested in the outcome of this proceeding, such as a member that has been accused previously of patent infringement.

Paper 30 at 14. Given the Board’s decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Realtime Adaptive Streaming, LLC, two panels have concluded, under different facts, that Unified members are not real parties-in-interest after the recent AIT decision clarifying RPI inquiries.

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

Multiple claims for Collision Avoidance Techs. patent held unpatentable

On November 13, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Collision Avoidance Techs., LLC, IPR2017-01355 invalidating claims 21, 22, 24, 25 and 28 of U.S. Patent 6,268,803 owned and asserted by Collision Avoidance Technologies, a subsidiary of well-known NPE Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.). The '803 Patent, directed to a system and method to help drivers of vehicles avoid collisions, was previously asserted in district court litigation against Ford and Toyota.

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

Unified files IPR against US 9,338,449 owned by Velos Media, LLC

On November 7, 2018, Unified filed a petition (with Wilmer Hale serving as lead counsel) for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 9,338,449, owned by Velos Media, LLC (Velos) as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its new SEP Video Codec Zone.

The ‘449 patent and its corresponding extended patent family is the third-largest family known to be owned by Velos and represents approximately 5.9% of Velos’s total known assets.  Velos claims to have and seeks to license patents allegedly essential to the HEVC / H.265 standard. The ’449 patent, originally assigned to Qualcomm, was transferred to Velos Media in 2017. Declarations likely related to the ‘449 patent are available here via OPEN—Unified’s free, fully-searchable standard submission repository.  After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘449 patent is likely unpatentable.

Visit Unified’s Public Portal for more information about its Video Codec landscape (OPAL) and standard submission repository (OPEN). To read the petition and review the case record, view IPR2019-00194 on the Portal.