Joseph Yoon patent likely invalid

On March 29, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 9,376,076, owned and asserted by Joseph Y. Yoon IP LLC. The '076 patent is generally directed to airbag deployment technology and was asserted against Toyota.

 View district court litigations by Joseph Y. Yoon IP LLC. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Michael Jones of Rothwell Figg IP Professionals and by in-house counsel, Michelle Aspen and David Seastrunk.

$2,000 for Vision Works IP prior art

On March 24, 2022, 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 8,315,769, owned by Vision Works IP, an NPE. The '769 patent is generally related to a communication system that includes a vehicle speed sensor configured to emit a periodic function with a parameter correlated to the speed of the vehicle, an acceleration monitoring system, a braking system engagement detector to detect a braking status of the vehicle, an alerting device capable of signaling other drivers of a deceleration condition of the vehicle, and a control device. It is currently being asserted against Nissan.

The contest will expire on July 15, 2022. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

Prior Art Provider	Claim Chart Link
Apex Standards	Invalidity Report
Apex Standards	Claim Construction Report
Traindex	Prior Art Report
Techson IP	Limestone|Report
IPscreener	Relevant Prior Art
InQuartik	Semantic Prior Art
Google	Similar Documents - Patents
Google	Similar Documents - NPL
Unified Portal	Relevant Prior Art

$2,000 for IPRA Technologies prior art

On March 24, 2022, 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 10,726,102, owned by IPRA Technologies Limited OY, an NPE. The '102 patent relates to accessing restrictive content. The patent has been asserted against Google, Netflix, Sony, Apple, Amazon, Intertrust Technologies, and Philips.

The contest will expire on July 15, 2022. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.

Prior Art Provider	Claim Chart Link
Apex Standards	Invalidity Report
Apex Standards	Claim Construction Report
Traindex	Prior Art Report
Techson IP	Limestone|Report
IPscreener	Relevant Prior Art
InQuartik	Semantic Prior Art
Google	Similar Documents - Patents
Google	Similar Documents - NPL
Unified Portal	Relevant Prior Art

VLSI/Fortress IP Patents Likely Invalid Despite OpenSky’s Bad Behavior

Below is an except of an opinion piece written by Unified’s CEO and Co-Founder, Kevin Jakel, for IPWatchdog.com.

“[The PTAB] has been successful over the years in checking significant numbers of asserted invalid patents, by some measures saving the U.S. economy billions of dollars over…. And yet, many self-interested parties would rather the PTAB not exist, and are suggesting the OpenSky email is evidence of systemic malaise.”

You’ve probably heard about all of the VLSI drama: the eye-popping $2.18 billion judgment won by non-practicing entity (NPE) VLSI (funded by Fortress IP), mysterious post-judgment inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed against the VLSI patents, and finally the now-notorious email from OpenSky offering to disrupt their own IPR in exchange for a fee. Folks have jumped all over the email from OpenSky for its obvious bad behavior, but they are also using it as an indictment of the entire Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). What is noteworthy here is not the email—this type of behavior is extremely rare. The real story here is what the system got right, and where it failed.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Two InterDigital patents revoked in the EPO

On March 10, 2022, InterDigital elected to withdraw the approval of their claims on both EP 1869893 B1 and EP 1872588 B1, bringing Unified’s opposition proceedings to an end. The EP ’893 and EP ’588 patents were part of a family purportedly essential to HEVC and part of the SISVEL AV1 patent pool. This filing is a part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

Unified is represented by Andrew McGettrick and Susan Keston from HGF Law, and by in-house counsel, Jessica L.A. Marks and Jung Hahm.