Prior art found for Rain Computing patent

Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Angelo Luca, who received a cash prize of $1,500 for his prior art submission for U.S. Patent 9,805,349, owned by Rain Computing, Inc., an NPE. The '349 patent generally relates to methods and systems for delivering software packages to client terminals based on a subscription service by which a user is charged for specific applications that the user is subscribed to use and 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.

WINNING SUBMISSION

US 9,805,349 The US 9,805,349 patent (hereafter, "​Chang​") filed on April 18, 2013 and claimedpriority to an earlier application filed on November 22, 2007. ​Chang ​discloses a method todeliver software packages over a computer network based on user demand.

$4,000 Cash Prize for Prior Art on Universal Cipher Patent

On January 17, 2019, Unified added a new PATROLL contest with a $4,000 cash prize for prior art submissions for US 7,721,222. The '222 patent generally relates to a non-English text generation system by which text can be generated in any language without a keyboard. The ‘222 patent is owned by Universal Cipher, LLC (an NPE) and has been widely asserted in district court. To protect innovation and deter future frivolous assertions, Unified is offering a $4,000 cash prize for the best prior art on this patent.

The contest will expire on February 17, 2020. Please visit PATROLL for more information or to submit an entry for this contest.

Barkan Wireless patent claims held unpatentable by PTAB

On January 8, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a public version of its final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P., holding as unpatentable 15 of 21 challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,014,284 owned by and asserted by Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, an NPE. The '284 patent, directed to an “add-on base station” in a cellular network, has been asserted in district court litigation against Verizon and Samsung. 

The Board’s decision rejected Patent Owner's argument that Unified’s members should have been named as RPIs in this proceeding, finding that “[a]ll entities have an interest in eliminating or mitigating the risks of [] lawsuits pending against them.” This is the latest in a series of decisions that have consistently found Unified to be the sole RPI.

Unified was represented by Haynes and Boone in this matter. View Barkan Wireless' district court litigation here. To read the decision and view the entire case proceeding, see our PTAB Portal.

Contemporary Display patent determined to be likely invalid

On January 7, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against US Patent 8,863,219, owned by Contemporary Display, LLC, an IP Valuation Partners entity and well-known NPE. The ‘219 patent, directed to the well-known method of a television and its on-screen display menu, had previously been asserted against various television manufacturers and service providers including LG, Verizon, and Cox.

Unified is represented by David Tennant at White & Case in this proceeding. View Contemporary Display's district court litigation. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see Unified's Portal.

Another Velos Media patent challenged as likely unpatentable

On January 2, 2020, Unified filed a petition (with WilmerHale serving as lead counsel) for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 9,414,066, owned by Velos Media, LLC (Velos), as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

The ‘066 patent and its corresponding extended patent family is one of the largest families known to be owned by Velos, representing nearly 5% of Velos’ total U.S. patent grants. Including this petition, Unified has now challenged patents representing over 42% 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 ’066 patent is directed to video decoding techniques and was originally assigned to Ericsson before being transferred to Velos in 2018.  After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘066 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 IPR2020-00352 on the Portal.