$3,000 for Trust & Verify Data Protection LLC prior art

On June 15, 2020, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $3,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claims 37 (system) and 25 (method) of U.S. Patent 7,137,140. The patent is owned by Trust & Verify Data Protection, LLC, an NPE. The '140 patent generally relates to a customer computer and vendor computer that are interconnected by means of a network. The customer can initiate a transaction, such as the purchase of information from the vendor, however, the vendor will not proceed until verification of the transaction has been received from the site.

This patent has been asserted in district court against companies such as Adyen, Micro Focus, Ravelin Technology, Signifyd, and Stripe.

APEX STANDARDS has shared US and non-US prior art as well as corresponding claim charting against the patent. Interested professionals may take them and craft work products from there. The link can be found here: https://apexstandards.com/pcc/US7137140B2_invalidity/

The contest will expire on July 31, 2020. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

Arsus patent challenged as likely invalid

On June 11, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 10,259,494, owned and asserted by Arsus, LLC, an NPE. The ‘494 patent, generally directed towards a rollover prevention apparatus for an automobile, is currently being asserted against Tesla Motors. Prior patents in this family were asserted in a case against a BMW dealership in Utah (dismissed on non-infringement).

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

$2,000 for 21st Century Garage patent prior art

On June 10, 2020, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 6,526,460. The ‘460 patent, formerly owned by Intellectual Ventures, is owned by 21st Century Garage, LLC, an NPE. The '460 patent generally relates to a vehicle communications system, in particular for a motor vehicle, having a plurality of equipment units for transmitting, receiving, acquiring and/or processing data for executing applications.

The ‘460 patent is currently being asserted against Hyundai. The district court complaint can be found HERE.

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

ETRI patent challenged as likely invalid

On June 9, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,867,854, owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), as part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone. The ‘854 patent is part of the HEVC Advance Patent Pool, as well as SISVEL's AV1 and VP9 patent pools. Raghav Bajaj, from Haynes and Boone, is lead counsel.

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 IPR2020-01048 on the Portal.

Lighthouse "check depositing" patent determined to be likely invalid

On June 9, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 8,590,940, owned and asserted by Lighthouse Consulting Group, an NPE. The ‘940 patent is directed to image-based check depositing technology. Lighthouse has thus far asserted this patent over 30 times since July and over 20 of those cases are still active (not including multiple DJ actions). The defendants in these cases are primarily banks and financial services companies such as Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Charles Schwab, AMEX, Bank of America, Capital One, Morgan Stanley, Ally Financial, JP Morgan, and BB&T. Wells Fargo also filed an IPR petition challenging claims of this patent in April.

Unified is represented by Raghav Bajaj at Haynes and Boone in this proceeding. View Lighthouse's district court litigation. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see Unified's Portal.