PATROLL: 2022 Update

Unified’s PATROLL, the only Crowd Sourced Prior Art platform, currently has 65 active contests with over $130,000 in cash prize payouts. In addition, 22 contests are in the final review process and winners will be announced soon. With 1,454 total submissions, PATROLL has seen tremendous success in deterring low quality patents. 

The increase in submissions has led to more successful contest winners. Since 2020, 50 submissions have been announced as the winner, versus only 16 in 2018 and 2019 combined. In that same time frame, nearly $100,000 in prizes have been awarded versus only $37,000 in 2018 and 2019. 

Awarded Winners
$130,975 66

Beginning in 2020, Unified partnered with several third-party prior art research firms - Amplified, APEX STANDARDS, Techson IP, Traindex, IPscreener, Ambercite, and InQuartik. These partnerships led to more submissions being made by outside prior art researchers and scientists. With more submissions, more money was awarded and we continued the fight against the low-quality patents.

As seen below, the Average Submissions Per Contest Per Year increased by nearly 12% from 9.3 submissions in 2020 to now 10.5 in 2022. 

Unified received a record-high of 425 total submissions for 2021. 

With 22 contests being finalized and 65 in progress, the total payout for 2022 is expected to be nearly $200,000 with over 500 submissions projected. To view all active contests, please visit PATROLL.

2022 © - All Rights Reserved. Unified Patents, LLC

$2,000 for N99 prior art

Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,768,395. The patent is owned by N99 LLC, an NPE. The '395 patent generally relates to brand mapping. The patent is currently being asserted against Aldi.

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

Prior Art ProviderClaim Chart Link
Traindex Prior Art Report
Techson IPLimestone|Report
IPscreener Relevant Prior Art
Ambercite Similar Prior Art
Google Similar Documents - Patents
Google Similar Documents - NPL
Unified Portal Relevant Prior Art

IP Edge entity Orbit Licensing reexamination granted

On February 10, 2022, three months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the USPTO granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,578,040, owned and asserted by Orbit Licensing, an IP Edge entity. The '040 patent is generally directed to packet communications, including determining whether a service request is authorized or not. The '040 patent has been asserted 10 times, including against the SPF protocol (an open standard of the IETF) of several companies such as EidosMedia, Red Hat, OnApp, Akamai, Tencent, Limelight Networks, Wowza Media, CodePen, Velocix, and The MathWorks.

View district court litigation by Orbit Licensing. Unified is represented by James Stein of Lee & Hayes and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Jung Hahm.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90014897.

Unified is hiring for full-time Senior Patent Counsel - Apply Today!

Click HERE to apply

Unified Patents is again growing its legal department and seeks to add an experienced, registered patent attorney. Applicants should have at least 5 years of law firm or other relevant experience before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) working on post-grant petitions (IPR, PGR, and CBM), reexaminations, or other administrative drafting and litigation experience.

Applicants should have a strong technical background and be willing to explore diverse new technologies; experience with video codecs, coding, cryptography, compression, signals, wireless communications, or other algorithmic subject matter is a plus. Patent examination experience is a plus; a registration number is a plus; clerking experience is a plus; familiarity with ongoing appellate issues affecting PTAB practice is a plus. Must be willing to work within a team, work well independently, and enjoy writing and editing. Journal and filing experience is a plus. Strong preference for candidates located in the Washington, DC area. Diversity is prized in our team and among our candidates. Please be prepared to discuss the administrative matters you have been involved in and be ready to provide examples.

$2,000 awarded for AML IP prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Vibhor Dimri and Sukhdeep Singh, who split a cash prize of $2,000 for their prior art submissions for U.S. Patent 6,876,979. This patent is owned by AML IP, LLC, an NPE and subsidiary of Dynamic IP Deals, LLC. The '979 patent generally relates to a system and method for supporting electronic commerce in an environment in which multiple service providers each have associated vendors where a user may maintain an account at a service provider that is different from the service provider associated with the vendor from which a user makes an on-line purchase. AML IP is currently asserting the patent against several companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, Kongregate, Coinbase, Rebilly, Payment Approved Technologies, AffiniPay, and others.

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