FireNet Technologies patent challenged as likely invalid

On March 13, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,892,600, owned and asserted by FireNet Technologies, LLC, an IP Investments affiliate and well-known NPE.  The ’600 patent, generally directed to a proxy firewall system for protecting devices within a network, has been asserted in 5 district court cases against such companies as Kemp Technologies, Fortinet, and Citrix.  

View FireNet’s district court litigation.  To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified is represented by in-house counsel David Seastrunk and Roshan Mansinghani in this proceeding. 

Ideahub patent challenged as likely invalid

On March 12, 2020, Unified filed a petition (with Haynes and Boone serving as lead counsel) for inter partes review (IPR) against US Patent 9,641,849, owned by Ideahub Inc. as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone. The '849 patent relates to a video compression technique known as intra prediction.

The '849 patent is a part of the HEVC Advance patent pool. HEVC Advance claims that certain claims of the '849 patent are essential to the HEVC standard. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the '849 patent is likely unpatentable.

Visit Unified’s 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 IPR2020-00702 on Unified’s Portal.

Introducing Unified Consulting

Many companies need customized solutions to help with patent portfolio analysis, landscaping, infringement, Standard Essential Patent (SEP) issues, and expert testimony. Introducing Unified Consulting (UC), a sister company to Unified Patents, which can meet the needs of companies through IP consulting and data services and support. UC provides innovative solutions to clients which have traditionally been unavailable or extremely expensive.

UC will be led by Kevin Jakel and Craig Thompson, both of which bring decades of IP expertise to the new company. Craig will be leading UC’s consulting practice and data service offerings. Previously, he had been head of IP at Alcatel Lucent and head of IP Licensing for Americas for Nokia. Most recently, he was leading an international IP consulting firm called TNT IP.

“Unified Consulting will be able to leverage existing software tools and analytics to provide capabilities previously only available to the largest companies,” says Thompson. “I am excited to be part of an entity dedicated to providing the best quality answers to client’s questions and help improve the patent market in general.”

A major focus of UC will be to help companies better navigate SEP issues through offering data services and support. As part of that, UC recently published a brief analysis of FRAND offers in TCL v. Ericsson that demonstrated the error of using comparative licenses there, and demonstrating how not everyone fairly paid the same rate for the same SEP license.

“We are excited to launch Unified Consulting to improve the patent market and help companies make more informed decisions,” said Kevin Jakel, member of UC’s board of directors. “We believe that our tools and experience can deliver better outcomes for our clients in a number of important IP areas.”

$2,000 Cash Prize for Prior Art on Kioba Processing Patent

On March 6, 2020, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest with a $2,000 cash prize for prior art submissions for USRE45006. The '006 patent generally relates to "marketing and more particularly to a method and system for differentiated customer promotion." The patent is owned by Kioba Processing, LLC, an NPE. To protect innovation and deter future frivolous assertions, Unified is offering a $2,000 cash prize for the best prior art on this patent.

The contest will expire on April 15, 2020. Please visit PATROLL for more information or to submit an entry for this contest.

Universal Cipher (formerly Cumberland Systems) settles with Unified Patents

On March 5, 2020, a joint motion to terminate pursuant to settlement was filed in IPR2019-00498 by Unified Patents and Universal Cipher, LLC (f/k/a Cumberland Systems), an NPE. The ’647 patent, directed to encrypting of a password or other secret information, has been asserted in twenty-four district court cases, all of which have been terminated.    

Unified was represented by Ropes & Gray and in-house counsel Jung Hahm and Roshan Mansinghani in this proceeding. View district court litigation for the ’647 patent. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see Unified’s Portal.