NEWS & VIEWS
Unified News, Views, & Blogs
On September 6, 2019, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against US Patent 9,671,955, owned by KCG Technologies LLC, an NPE. The ‘955 patent, generally directed to a virtual smart phones used in in-vehicle systems, has been asserted against CarMax in district court.
View KCG Tech’s district court litigation here. Alyssa Holtslander is lead counsel for Unified in this proceeding. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see Unified's Portal.
On September 9, 2019, Unified added a new PATROLL contest with a $1,500 cash prize for prior art submissions for US 8,760,286. The '286 patent, directed to a location tracking system, is owned by Inventergy Lbs, LLC (a well-known NPE) and has been asserted in multiple district court cases. To protect innovation and deter future frivolous assertions, Unified is offering a $1,500 cash prize for the best prior art on this patent.
The contest will expire on November 30, 2019. Please visit PATROLL for more information or to submit an entry for this contest.
Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Rajesh Singh, who received a cash prize of $2,000 for his prior art submission for U.S. Patent 6,599,130, owned by Tamabo, Inc., an NPE. The '130 patent, directed to a tutorial or diagnostic aid based on the representation and iterative interpretation of visual images, has been asserted in district court litigation. To help the industry fight bad patents, we have published the winning prior art below.
We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.
On September 3, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial in an IPR filed by Unified against all independent claims and several dependent claims of US Patent 8,964,849, owned by Velos Media, LLC. The ’849 patent, generally directed to techniques for video encoding and decoding, was originally assigned to Blackberry before being transferred to Velos in 2017.
Velos claims to have and seeks to license patents allegedly essential to the HEVC / H.265 standard (such as the ‘849 patent). Unified filed this challenge as part of its ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone after independently determining that the allegedly standard essential ‘849 patent is likely unpatentable.
Unified is represented by David Cavanaugh and Theodoros Konstantakopoulos from Wilmer Hale in this proceeding. Visit Unified’s Portal for more information about its Video Codec landscape (OPAL) and standard submission repository (OPEN). To read the decision and review the case record, view IPR2019-00710 on the Portal.
Unified Patents is a member-based organization that seeks to deter NPE litigation within its protected zones of technology. Unified accomplishes this goal by filing inter partes review proceedings (IPRs) challenging the validity of NPE-controlled patents. In addition, Unified provides a variety of patent and PTAB data to assist companies in making informed licensing and litigation decisions. Unified also makes this data available to the public for independent study or research.
Unified has two openings for paid, legal internship positions for assisting with its legal and database activities. No technical background is required, although experience with Excel and/or Google Sheets is preferred. Interns will assist with PTAB analytics and assist in prior art searches / drafting of IPR petitions.
Although the position offers flexibility and the option to work remotely, interns can use our San Jose office as well. For more information and instructions on how to apply, use the link below.
