$2,500 for IP Edge sub, Aperture Net, prior art

On February 11, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,500 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 6,711,204. The patent is owned by Aperture Net, an NPE and IP Edge subsidiary. The '204 patent generally relates to an improvement to a spread-spectrum code-division-multiple-access system, using a channel sounding signal from a base station (BS) to provide initial transmitter power levels for remote stations (RS). It is currently being asserted against Itron, Starry, and Cambium Networks.

The contest will expire on May 31, 2022. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

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Intellectual Ventures patent challenged

On February 10, 2022, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 9,291,475, owned by Intellectual Ventures II LLC. The ‘475 patent is generally directed to detecting driving violations and reporting those violations to a recipient. The ‘475 patent was asserted against several car companies in 2021, including Toyota, GM, and Honda.

View district court litigations by Intellectual Ventures. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Alyssa Holtslander and Roshan Mansinghani.

$2,500 Awarded for IP Edge sub, Golden IP, prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Akash Verma, who received a cash prize of $2,500 for his prior art submission for U.S. Patent 9,397,627. The patent was recently assigned from Dedicated Licensing, LLC, an NPE and IP Edge subsidiary, to Golden IP LLC, also an NPE and IP Edge subsidiary. The '627 patent generally relates to a network-enabled audio device that provides a display device that allows the user to select playlists of music much like a jukebox. The patent has been asserted against Rhapsody, Vimeo, iHeartMedia, SoundCloud, Sound Hound, and Genius Media Group.

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.

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GEVC patent successfully challenged at the EPO

On January 20, 2022, all of the original claims of EP 3 410 716 B1, owned by GE Video Compression LLC (GEVC), were found unpatentable based on a challenge filed by Unified. The EP‘716 patent is generally related to coding of significance maps and transform coefficient blocks and was claimed as essential to HEVC as part of the Access Advance patent pool. This filing is a part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

Read the entire filing below. Unified is represented by Dr. Simon Q. Lud, European Patent Attorney at Maiwald Intellectual Property, and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Roshan Mansinghani.

Helios Streaming/Ideahub patent held invalid

On February 7, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Ideahub Inc. holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,645,562 invalid and denying Helios' motion to amend the claims. The ‘562 patent is owned by Ideahub, Inc., and licensed to and asserted by Helios Streaming, LLC, an NPE. The patent is directed to an adaptive streaming service using metadata and is being asserted against Showtime, Vudu, Crackle, and Starz. Helios is asserting the ‘562 patent against streaming media content in accordance with the MPEG-DASH standard and video-on-demand (VOD) systems. 

View district court litigation by Ideahub and Helios. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by WilmerHale and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Jung Hahm, in this proceeding.