Prior Art published on Theranos patents now asserted by Fortress/Softbank against medical diagnostic companies

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, non-practicing entity, Labrador Diagnostics, LLC, an NPE owned by Fortress Investment Group (Softbank), has asserted two diagnostic testing patents originally owned by Theranos, the now-defunct diagnostics company run by Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes is now under Federal indictment for fraud and listed as the lead inventor on both patents. Those patents read on testing for strains of coronavirus; the suit continues. 

In light of the important public interest concerns this raises, and as part of the Open Covid Pledge, Unified Patents asked the public for prior art or other grounds of invalidity for claim 1 of U.S. Patent 10,533,994 and for claim 1 of U.S. Patent 8,283,155. In addition to the submissions below, APEX STANDARDS, a standard-essentiality and patent-validity analysis provider, has shared US and non-US prior arts, as well as, corresponding claim charts against US 10,533,994 and US 8,283,155 (click on the links to view their results).

The winning submissions for both the U.S. Patent 10,533,994 and U.S. Patent 8,283,155 were by the search team at Murgitroyd.

Unified retains no rights and offers permission to the public to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or adapt any of the following. 

In addition to the submissions above, Unified also received the following submissions for US 10,533,994 (Holmes I):

Unified also received the following submissions for US 8,283,155 (Holmes II):

IP Bridge patent challenged as likely invalid

On May 1, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,305,035 as part of its ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone. The '035 patent is owned by Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1, which is participating in the HEVC Advance patent pool (HEVC Advance patent list).

HEVC Advance claims that certain claims of the '035 patent are essential to the HEVC standard. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the '035 patent is likely unpatentable.

Unified is represented by Raghav Bajaj of Haynes and Boone in this proceeding. 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 IPR2020-00867 on Unified’s Portal.

$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

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

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.