$3,000 for Prior Art on Former Panasonic Patent being asserted against ventilator companies by IP Edge, an NPE

On May 4, 2020, as part of Unified's Open Covid Pledge efforts, Unified has announced a new PATROLL contest seeking prior art on at least Claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,567,622. This former Panasonic patent is now owned by Swirlate IP, LLC, an NPE and IP Edge entity. The '622 patent generally relates to digital modulation and transmission errors in wireless communication systems (e.g. cellular radios).

The patent has been asserted against ResMed, Livongo Health, Corning Optical Communications, Badger Meter, and Continental Automotive. The accused products include ventilators (ResMed) and blood glucose monitors (Livongo Health).

As part of Unified's ongoing effort to protect and deter future frivolous assertions against critical healthcare products during the time of COVID-19, Unified is offering a $3,000 cash prize for the best prior art on this patent. The contest will expire on June 15, 2020. Please visit PATROLL for more information or to submit an entry for this contest.

Prior Art found on "Earphones holder" patent

Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ritesh Jain, who received a cash prize of $1,200 for his prior art submission for US 9,167,329. The '329 patent, generally directed to a magnetic earphones holder, is owned by Snik LLC (an NPE) and has been asserted in district court. 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

• KR 100,813,067

• CN 101,848,406

US 9,167,329 The '329 patent ("Honeycutt") (filed on January 4, 2013 with a claim for an earlier priority datefrom a provisional application filed on February 22, 2012), discloses an earphone holder that isused to affix headphones to objects via a magnetic apparatus.

Prior art found for E-Attach '993

Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Rajesh Singh and Rahul Vijh, who split the winning cash prize of $1,400 for prior art submissions for U.S. Patent 7,092,993. The '993 patent, generally directed to a method and system for customizing e-mail transmissions based on content detection, is owned by E-Attach LLC and has been asserted in district court.

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 SUBMISSIONS

• U.S. 7,016,937

• U.S. 7,146,381

US 7,092,993 The '993 patent ("Goldberg") (filed on February 3, 2002 with a claim for an earlier priority datefrom a continuation in part application filed on March 20, 2001), discloses a method and systemfor checking customization settings (e.g., attaching a file or adding an individual as a CC) inemail messages based on content detection and subsequently alerting the user to customize theemail if they have not done so.

Cassiopeia IP patent determined to be likely unpatentable

On April 29, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 7,322,046, owned and asserted by Cassiopeia IP LLC, an IP Edge affiliate and well-known NPE.

The ‘046 patent is directed to the secure use of a service in a network. The ’046 patent is currently being asserted against Ricoh, Funai, Yamaha, and QNAP. All other cases have been terminated.

To read the institution decision and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented in this proceeding by in-house counsel, Alyssa Holtslander and Roshan Mansinghani, and outside counsel, Lee & Hayes, PLLC.

Another GE-owned, HEVC Advance standard essential patent, challenged as likely invalid

On April 28, 2020, as part of its ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 9,357,217. The '217 patent is owned by GE Video Compression, LLC (GEVC), which is participating in the HEVC Advance patent pool (HEVC Advance patent list).

The ’217 patent, originally assigned to Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, was transferred to GEVC in 2015.

HEVC Advance claims that certain claims of the '217 patent are essential to the HEVC standard. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the ‘217 patent is likely unpatentable.

Unified is represented by Eric Buresh of Erise IP in this proceeding. 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 IPR2020-00858 on the Portal.