$3,000 for Tekvoke prior art

On April 9, 2021, 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 6,687,343. The patent is owned by Tekvoke LLC, an entity of notorious NPE, IP Edge.

The '343 patent is directed to an Internet communication control apparatus selectively connected to communication terminals and a computer network and a method for controlling such an apparatus. This patent has been asserted against over 20 companies, including Cable One, Intrado Corporation, AireSpring, Block Communications, Brekeke Software, IDT Corporation, and Nextiva. Tekvoke is targeting web-based PBX (private box exchange) connected to telephones and smart device apps.

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

Prior Art ProviderClaim Chart Link
Apex StandardsPseudo Claim Charting
Techson IPLimestone|Report
Amplified Invalidity Report
Traindex Prior Art Report
InQuartik Semantic Prior Art

5G RAN Developments: Challenges and Opportunities for Patent Licensing in a 5G Future

Much has been said about how 5G will better use the airwaves, giving wings to new communications between people and between devices. Little has been said though about how 5G could change markets and industries. The equipment market for the radio access network (RAN) is a good example of just one market that is now caught in the updraft of such change. Another market bound to rise is the market for patent licensing—and, in particular, standard essential patent licensing for 5G RAN. To help make sense of the 5G patent licensing market, we have developed an AI-based 5G landscaping tool to help identify and weigh the relative patent portfolios (OPAL) and an indexed repository of all technical contributions made to 3GPP 2G-5G standardization work (OPEN).

Continue reading the full article on IPWatchdog’s website HERE. This is article is the first in a series written by Craig Thompson, General Manager and COO for Unified Consulting. In Part II of this series, he will address the licensing challenges unique to the RAN market.

Federal Circuit dismisses Uniloc 2017's appeal

On March 31, 2021, the Federal Circuit granted a motion to dismiss Uniloc 2017's appeal in Case No. 21-1644 (see below). The appeal stemmed from IPR2019-01126, in which Unified received a final written decision finding all of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 6,519,005 unpatentable under two independent grounds. The patent relates to a method for motion estimation for a digital video encoder.

The '005 patent has been asserted against a large number of defendants, including Netflix, Google, Sling, Verizon, AT&T, ABC, Vudu, Roku, Brightcove, Telestream, Hulu, Bitmovin, Dailymotion, ESPN, and Amazon.com.

Unified was represented by Scott McKeown and Victor Cheung at Ropes and Gray, and by in-house counsel, Jordan Rossen and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding. View Uniloc's district court litigation. To read the petition and view the entire case proceeding, see Unified's Portal.

$1,875 Awarded for Peoplechart prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Sukhdeep Singh, who received a cash prize of $1,875 for his prior art submission for US 8,869,249. This patent is owed by Peoplechart Corporation, an NPE. The '249 patent generally relates to protecting personal information using user authentication methods related to mobile banking. The patent is currently be asserted against Wintrust Bank for their use of a mobile banking application.

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