Pebble Tide (IP Edge) patent determined to be likely invalid

On July 7, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in a PGR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 10,303,411, owned by Pebble Tide, LLC, an IP Edge affiliate and well-known NPE. The '411 patent is directed to capturing and outputting digital content. Prior to institution, Pebble Tide already abandoned some of the challenged claims and the PTAB instituted a trial on all of the remaining challenged claims.

The ‘411 patent has been asserted against over 25 companies, involving remote monitoring camera systems, mobile banking apps, online photo-sharing services, and auto insurance claims submission apps. All of the district court litigations have been terminated.

Unified is one of the top petitioners for inter partes review proceedings with over 200 petitions filed against bad NPE-controlled patents. This filing was the first occasion that Unified filed an early, post-grant review petition challenging a patent’s validity.

View Pebble Tide's district court litigation.  To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jung Hahm and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

Transactionsecure abandons patent, terminating proceeding

On July 7, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) terminated proceedings in Unified Patents Inc. et al. v. Transactionsecure LLC et al., after Transactionsecure abandoned all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,738,921. The ‘921 patent, directed to user authentication systems and methods, had been asserted in multiple district court cases against such companies as Formstack, Fitbit, Facebook, Stripe, and Github. All district court cases have been closed.

View Transactionsecure's district court litigation.  To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified was represented by Jason Mudd and Eric Buresh at Erise IP in this proceeding.

SecureWave patent held unpatentable

On July 7, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC et al. v. SecureWave Storage Solutions Inc. et al., holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,036,020 unpatentable. The ‘020 patent is owned by SecureWave Storage Solutions, an affiliate of Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.), a well-known NPE. The ‘020 patent, directed to securing areas of a memory device to limit access to stored data, has been asserted against Kingston Technology and Micron.  

View SecureWave’s district court litigation here. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see our Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jung Hahm and Ashraf Fawzy, in this proceeding.

$3,000 for Prior Art on Patent Owned by Acacia's Subsidiary, Unification Technologies

On July 7, 2020, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $3,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 9,632,727. The patent is owned by Unification Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp., a well-known NPE.

The '727 patent generally relates to managing data stored on non-volatile storage media over the provision of solid-state drive (SSD) devices. This patent has been asserted in district court 3 times this year against companies such as Micron, HP, and Dell.

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 product from there. The link can be found here:

https://apexstandards.com/pcc/US9632727B2_invalidity/

To view other PATROLL contests APEX STANDARDS has reviewed, please visit:

https://www.apexstandards.com/Unified/

Techson IP has provided its Full validity-focused Limestone|Report which includes: a list of highly relevant prior art patent leads - individually ranked to the claims and tiered by research efficiency; summary predictive analytics about the search; a full CPC technology profile. Interested professionals may take them and craft work products from there. The Full Report link is here.

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

IPCO wireless patent challenged as likely invalid

On July 6, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 6,044,062, owned and asserted by IPCO, LLC, an NPE. IPCO, also known as IP Co., LLC and IntusIQ, is affiliated with Glocom Inc. and shares a common ownership with SIPCO, LLC.  

The '062 patent is related to a wireless network system and is currently being asserted against Jasco Products Company and Qolsys for their use of the Z-Wave standard wireless mesh protocol. Prior litigations against Fibar USA, FrontPoint Security Solutions, Emerson Electric, Crestron Electronics, Ingersoll-Rand, Tropos Networks, and Cellnet Technology have been terminated or are currently inactive.

View district court litigation by IPCO. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jung Hahm and Jonathan Stroud, in this proceeding.