$2,000 Awarded for '411 WSOU prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Preeti Dua, who received a cash prize of $2,000 for her prior art submission for U.S. Patent 8,209,411. The patent is owned by the most prolific NPE assertor in 2020, WSOU Investments, LLC d/b/a/ Brazos Licensing and Development. The '411 patent generally relates to systems and methods of providing content to a terminal and, more particularly, relates to systems and methods of providing content to a terminal having a limited display area for presenting such content. The '411 patent is currently being asserted against Salesforce, in the Western District of Texas.

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

Another EPO challenge filed against ETRI

On June 9, 2021, Unified Patents filed an opposition in the EPO against EP 3448035. The EP ‘035 patent is owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). The patent is related to patents that are designated essential to the HEVC Advance patent pool as well as SISVEL’s AV1 patent pool.

Read the entire filing below. Unified is represented by Andrew McGettrick at HGF Law, and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Jessica L.A. Marks.

Aeritas reexamination request granted

On June 17, 2021, 30 days after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the USPTO granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on all challenged claims (claims 1-10) of U.S. Patent 9,390,435, owned by Aeritas LLC, an NPE. The ‘435 patent relates to receiving notifications related to products or services of interest, at a mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and notification criteria, and then receiving additional information about the products or services or a purchase confirmation, at the mobile device in response to an input. The patent has been asserted in 21 litigations, including current assertions against Finnair Oyi, Darden Restaurants, Whataburger Restaurants, Burger King, and WestJet Airlines.

View district court litigations by Aeritas. Unified is represented by in-house counsel Alyssa Holtslander, Michelle Aspen, and Jung Hahm.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on PAIR, go to https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair, enter 90/014,750, and click on the "Image File Wrapper" tab.

Prior art found on '668 Optinetix patent

Unified is pleased to announce prior art has been found on U.S. Patent 7,349,668. This patent is currently owned by Optinetix, a NPE. The '668 patent generally relates to a system and method for the distribution of information, typically digital information that is distributed actively, through broadcast media such as television and radio. Prior art search service provider, Parola Analytics, found the art shown below.

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

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The trials and tribulations of Chinese patent invalidation proceedings

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Unified’s senior patent counsel, Jessica Marks, explains Chinese oppositions and some of the unexpected issues that can crop up.

Validity challenges at the China National IP Administration are an increasingly important part of the Chinese patent landscape, but they can be confusing affairs. With regulations and guidelines, the process that PRID follows is intended to be efficient and many Chinese practitioners will advise that invalidations can be accomplished in six to nine months. However, Unified Patents has filed 18 such challenges since 2020 in China but, based on its experiences, the reality can be very different to expectations.

Read the article HERE, published by IAM.