$4,000 for prior art on Remote Concepts

On August 17, 2020, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $4,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claims 13 and 14 of U.S. Patent 7,016,942. This patent is owned by Remote Concepts, an NPE. The '942 patent relates to client-server network connectivity technology allowing a client computer to act as the host or server for other clients for direct client-to-client communications. This patent is currently being asserted against BlueJeans Network, Inc. in the Northern District of California.

APEX STANDARDS has shared US and non-US prior art as well as corresponding claim charting against the patent.

Techson IP has provided its full validity-focused Limestone|Report, the full report link is here.

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

Another IP Bridge patent challenged as likely invalid

On August 13, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,817,868 as part of its ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone. The '868 patent is owned by IP Bridge, which is participating in the HEVC Advance patent pool (HEVC Advance patent list).

HEVC Advance claims that certain claims of the '868 patent are essential to the HEVC standard. After conducting an independent analysis, Unified has determined that the '868 patent is likely unpatentable.

Unified is represented by Jon Bowser of Haynes and Boone, and in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Ashraf Fawzy, 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 IPR2020-01433 on Unified’s Portal.

AlterWAN patent determined to be likely invalid

On August 13, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 9,667,534, owned and asserted by AlterWAN, Inc., an NPE. The ‘534 patent, directed to routing packets via VPN, has been asserted in district court litigation against Amazon Web Services.

View AlterWAN's district court litigation. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jordan Rossen, Ashraf Fawzy, and Jonathan Stroud, in this proceeding.

Data Scape abandons patent, terminating proceeding

On July 17, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) terminated proceedings in Unified Patents, LLC v. Data Scape Ltd. in view of Data Scape’s submission of the Federal Circuit decision invaliding U.S. Patent 7,720,929 patent claims and Data Scape’s submission of a disclaimer disclaiming the claims challenged in the IPR. The ‘929 patent, directed to controlling the transfer of digital files from one computing device to another, had been asserted against numerous companies including Amazon, Apple, Box, Citrix, Dell, Dropbox, F5 Networks, Spotify, Teradata, and Verizon. Data Scape Limited is a Fortress subsidiary and well-known NPE.

View Data Scape’s district court litigation. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified was represented by Larissa Bifano and Michael Van Handel at DLA Piper and in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Alyssa Holtslander, in this proceeding.

Another Sound View patent challenged

On August 6, 2020, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 6,725,456, owned and asserted by Sound View Innovations, LLC. The request was filed in an effort to protect Open Source technologies from invalid NPE assertions. The ’456 patent generally relates to ensuring quality of service in an operating system. Sound View recently asserted this patent against Cigna, Walmart, Vudu, Delta Air Lines, DISH Network, and Sling TV. 

View district court litigations by Sound View. Read the request below. Unified is represented by Haynes and Boone and by in-house counsel, Alyssa Holtslander and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on PAIR, go to https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair, enter 90/014,560, and click on the "Image File Wrapper" tab.

§ REEXAMINATIONU.S. Patent No. 6,725,456 § § Attorney Docket No.: 50348.48Filed: November 29, 1999 § § Customer No.: 27683Issued: April 20, 2004 § § Proceeding No.: to be assignedTitle: METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR §ENSURING QUALITY OF SERVICE IN §AN OPERATING SYSTEM § Attn: Central Reexamination UnitHon. Commissioner for PatentsP.O.