Oceana Innovations patent determined to be likely invalid

On February 23, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all grounds challenging all of the claims of U.S. Patent 6,508,678, owned by Oceana Innovations LLC, an NPE and subsidiary of Endpoint IP. The ‘678 patent is generally directed to USB electrical connector assemblies with the patent being asserted against HDMI cable assemblies. In 2017, the previous patent owner, Interface Linx, LLC, asserted the ‘678 patent against TTE, Haier, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sherwood, Sound United, VOXX, and Hisense. Those cases terminated in 2019. The current patent owner, Oceana Innovations LLC, began a new campaign in May 2020, filing suits against JVCKenwood, Charter Communications, and Roku (terminated).

View district court litigations by Oceana Innovations. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jessica L.A. Marks and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

GE Video Compression patent likely unpatentable

On February 22, 2021, the USPTO granted Unified's request for ex parte reexamination, finding substantial questions of patentability for all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,057,603, owned by GE Video Compression LLC (GEVC). The ‘603 patent has been designated as essential in the HEVC Advance patent pool and is one of the largest GE families in Advance.

Unified is represented by Eric Buresh, Chris Schmidt, and Jocelyn Ram of Erise IP, and in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Ashraf Fawzy, in this proceeding. Visit Unified’s Public Portal for more information about its Video Codec landscape (OPAL) and standard submission repository (OPEN).

GE Video Compression reexamination request granted by Jennifer M Gallagher on Scribd

$1,500 for StratosAudio '203 prior art

On February 3, 2021, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $1,500 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claims 43, 47, 48, 51, 52, 55, 56, and 62 of U.S. Patent 8,200,203. The patent is owned by StratosAudio, an NPE. The '203 generally relates to a system and method for a broadcast response generally employing RDS, DARC, or similar technology, including a method for responding to a broadcast comprising of extracting an event identifier from a broadcast signal; detecting a response by a user to the broadcast signal; polling a communications device to determine a user identifier; and communicating the event identifier and the user identifier when the user response is detected. It is currently being asserted against Volvo, Hyundai, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Mazda.

The contest will expire on April 30, 2021. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

Prior Art Provider	Claim Chart Link
Apex Standards	Pseudo Claim Charting
Techson IP	Limestone|Report
Amplified	Invalidity Report
Traindex	Prior Art Report
InQuartik	Semantic Prior Art
IPscreener	Relevant Prior Art

$1,500 for StratosAudio '081 prior art

On February 3, 2021, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $1,500 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claims 9-11 of U.S. Patent 8,166,081. The patent is owned by StratosAudio, an NPE. The '081 patent generally relates to media advertising and in particular to systems and methods for associating an advertising media signal with another media signal. It is currently being asserted against Volvo, Hyundai, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Mazda.

The contest will expire on April 30, 2021. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

Prior Art Provider	Claim Chart Link
Apex Standards	Pseudo Claim Charting
Techson IP	Limestone|Report
Amplified	Invalidity Report
Traindex	Prior Art Report
InQuartik	Semantic Prior Art
IPscreener	Relevant Prior Art

JustService patent determined to be likely invalid

On February 18, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,476,868, owned and asserted by JustService.net, LLC, an NPE. The '868 patent is related to cloud and data-storage technology and is currently being asserted against Dropbox.

In the decision, the Board analyzed real party in interest and Fintiv trial-date discretionary denials, and found that neither were a bar to institution; on Fintiv, the Board found that the petition was filed early enough that the Western District trial schedule presented no conflict with the proceeding before the Board.

View district court litigation by JustService.net. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Michelle Aspen and Ashraf Fawzy, in this proceeding.