Unified files IPR against US 8,964,849 owned by Velos Media, LLC

On February 28, 2019, Unified filed a petition (with WilmerHale serving as lead counsel) for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,964,849, owned by Velos Media, LLC and previously owned by Blackberry, as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

The '849 patent and its corresponding extended patent family is one of the larger families known to be owned by Velos. Including this petition, Unified has now challenged patents representing 21.8% of Velos’ total known U.S. assets.

Velos claims to have and seeks to license patents allegedly essential to the HEVC / H.265 standard. The ’849 patent is part of a family of patents that were originally assigned to Blackberry Ltd. and transferred to Velos Media in 2019.  After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘849 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 IPR2019-00710 on the Portal.

Another HEVC Advance patent owned by GE challenged as likely invalid

On February 28, 2019, Unified (represented by Baker Botts) filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 6,943,710 as part of its ongoing efforts in its new SEP Video Codec Zone. The '710 patent is owned by GE Video Compression, LLC (GEVC) which is participating in the HEVC Advance patent pool (HEVC Advance patent list).

The ‘710 patent and its corresponding extended patent family is one of the larger families known to be owned by GEVC and represents approximately 5% of GEVC's known worldwide assets. Including this petition, Unified has challenged patents representing over 44% of GEVC’s known U.S. assets to date.

HEVC Advance claims that certain claims of the '710 patent are essential to the HEVC standard. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘710 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 IPR2019-00726 on the Portal.

PTAB cancels 16 of 17 claims for widely asserted Smart Authentication (Dominion Harbor) patent

On February 20, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Smart Authentication IP, LLC, IPR2017-02047 invalidating claims 1-10 and 12-17 of U.S. Patent 8,082,213 owned and asserted by Smart Authentication IP, LLC, a Dominion Harbor subsidiary and a well-known NPE.  The '213 patent, directed to a user authentication system, has been asserted in multiple litigations against such companies as MongoDB, Slack Technologies, Evernote, Etsy, Discover and USAA.

Unified’s own Roshan Mansinghani served as lead counsel in this proceeding. View all of Smart Authentication’s District Court litigation here. To read the decision, visit Unified’s PTAB Portal.

All challenged claims cancelled, Motion to Amend denied for Location Based Services patent

On February 15, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Location Based Services, LLC, IPR2017-01965 invalidating claims 1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13 and 14 of U.S. Patent 7,860,648 owned and asserted by Location Based Services, LLC, a Leigh Rothschild entity and NPE.  The '648 patent, directed to a mapping display system and method,  was originally obtained by Intellectual Ventures (Invention Science Fund I LLC) and then transferred to Rothschild. It belongs to a broader patent family that has been asserted against several carriers including Verizon,  as well as Rand McNally, Garmin, Niantic, and Trimble.

The Board’s decision also denied Patent Owner’s motion to amend which helps to ensure that this patent will not be used in future litigation campaigns. The Board cited multiple issues in rejecting the substitute claims including (1) being directed to unpatentable subject matter (101); (2) lacking proper support (112); and (3) being obvious in view of our prior art (103).

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

Unified files IPR against US 8,964,847 owned by Velos Media, LLC

On February 14, 2019, Unified filed a petition (with Baker Botts serving as lead counsel) for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,964,847, owned by Velos Media, LLC (Velos) as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its new SEP Video Codec Zone.

The ‘847 patent and its corresponding extended patent family is the largest family known to be owned by Velos and represents approximately 2.3% of Velos’ known U.S. assets. Including this petition, Unified has now challenged patents representing 12% of Velos’ total known U.S. assets.

Velos claims to have and seeks to license patents allegedly essential to the HEVC / H.265 standard. The ’847 patent, originally assigned to Panasonic, was transferred to Velos Media in 2017. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘847 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 IPR2019-00670 on the Portal.