Help stop bad Theranos patents from deterring investment in viral testing

In light of the serious public interest involved in ensuring that questionable patents are not used to extract money and resources from those deploying important diagnostics tests, we at Unified have launched special PATROLL crowdsourcing contests against Labrador Diagnostics / Fortress Investments / Softbank (Fortress) patents U.S. 8,283,155 and U.S. 10,533,994.  Rather than offer a reward, we believe it is in the best interest of the community (and the world) to widely, freely, and quickly publish the results to help eliminate invalid patents that could hinder COVID-19 diagnostics tests in these trying times. 

Fortress recently acquired the Theranos patents (listing Elizabeth Holmes as the lead inventor) and has asserted them against U.S. diagnostics companies through a newly formed NPE called Labrador Diagnostics LLC.  Shortly after they filed suit, a defendant announced it was making COVID-19 diagnostics tests for the government based on the technology at issue. In response, Fortress announced they would offer royalty-free licenses for COVID-19 testing, but they refuse to drop the suit, and are seeking to enjoin the company from making, using, or selling a wide array of diagnostics.  We believe everyone should chip in to deter such bad behavior, especially from entities like Fortress that have a long history of asserting patents often found invalid when challenged.

We kindly ask our crowdsourcing community of thousands of prior art searchers to take a few minutes to help identify prior art on these patents that never should have issued and help rid the world of them, in the process improving the world’s chances of testing for and containing COVID-19 and other dangerous public health concerns.

The contest will expire on April 30, 2020. Please visit PATROLL for more information or to submit an entry for this contest.

Federal Circuit affirms Unified IPR victory against Intellectual Ventures patent

On March 17, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a nonprecedential opinion in Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC, affirming a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in IPR2016-01643 that held several challenged claims of U.S. Patent 6,775,745 unpatentable. The '745 patent generally relates to a method of caching data on a computer, and has been asserted years prior, though the case is stayed. 

On appeal, Intellectual Ventures argued that the Board misconstrued several claim limitations of the '745 patent. The Court disagreed, finding that the Board's construction was reasonable, and affirming unpatentability.

Unified was represented by Peter Ayers in the appeal, and Finnegan in the IPR. Unified was also represented by in-house counsel Jonathan Stroud and Roshan Mansinghani in these proceedings. The opinion also affirmed an unrelated IPR filed by Dell EMC, Lenovo, and NetApp.

Targeted Radio patent challenged as likely unpatentable

On March 17, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,948,684, owned and asserted by Targeted Radio LLC, an Acacia Research Corporation affiliate and well-known NPE.  The ’684 patent, generally directed to the insertion of advertising or other content into an Internet radio stream based on the user's location, has been asserted in a district court case against Pandora.  

View Targeted Radio’s district court litigation.  To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified is represented by in-house counsel Jessica L.A. Marks and Jung Hahm in this proceeding.

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.