WSOU '960 patent held invalid

On July 20, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. WSOU Investments holding all of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,179,960 unpatentable. Owned by WSOU Investments, LLC, the filing was a part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone. The ‘960 patent was formerly owned by Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation) and has been asserted against ZTE. WSOU Investments, LLC is run by Craig Etchegoyen, formerly of Uniloc.

Unified was represented by Jon Bowser, Raghav Bajaj, and Angela Oliver from Haynes and Boone and by in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding. Visit Unified’s Portal for more information about its Video Codec landscape (OPAL) and standard submission repository (OPEN). To read the petition and review the case record, view IPR2021-00378 on Unified’s Portal.

5G value to cars found to be less than $10

The June 2022 Brattle Group report calculates Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) royalty rates for wireless Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) in vehicles for both 4G/LTE and 5G. 

Brattle found that wireless technology is increasingly expanding from handsets to the Internet of Things (IoT), including “connected vehicles.” LTE royalties for handsets (unlike those for vehicles) have been market and court tested, offering clarity around applicable FRAND rates for handsets. Rates for vehicles thus were calculated using LTE handset rates as a benchmark; adjusted for the differences in usage and capabilities. Brattle also found royalty rates for 5G as applied to vehicles to be the same as LTE because 5G rates have not been market or court tested and 5G currently offers no additional value to vehicles over LTE. While some 5G connected vehicle applications may create value in the future, that future is still uncertain and years away. Brattle notes that widespread adoption of 5G connected vehicle applications is necessary before any appreciable value can be attached to them.  

Brattle uses two distinct approaches to obtain an independent, FRAND rate. The first identified a vehicle’s Telematics Control Unit (TCU) as the key licensable component and calculated a FRAND rate of $6.57 per vehicle for a comparable TCU-capable handset, adjusted for the lower connectivity and usage requirements of vehicles.

The second approach uses the consumers’ relative willingness to pay for wireless connectivity in different applications as an indicator of the relative value of a 4G license in those applications, and found that consumers value connectivity in vehicles significantly less than in handsets. Using this approach, Brattle found the rate to be $7.76 per vehicle.

The full report and other 5G tools are available exclusively through Unified Patents.  In addition to economic reports, Unified provides Objective Patent Landscapes (OPAL) for many standards, including 5G and LTE, with the world’s largest human evaluated training set, Wi-Fi 6, HEVC, AVC, and others.  Unified’s standard submission database, OPEN, allows users to access all contributions to major standards such as 3GPP, MPEG, IEEE, and IETF.

Complete the form below to receive the full executive summary done by the Brattle Group and sponsored by Unified Patents.

$2,000 awarded for Xperi entity Rovi Guides prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ganesan Rajamanickam, who was awarded a cash prize of $2,000 for his prior art submission for U.S. Patent 11,012,720. The patent is owned by Rovi Guides, Inc., an NPE and subsidiary of Xperi Holding Corporation. The '720 patent generally relates to providing a buffer time prior to deletion of a media content item.

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. Fill out the form below to download a copy of the prior art found.

WINNING SUBMISSION

$2,000 awarded for HY LIT Radio prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Klin Rothenberger, who was awarded a cash prize of $2,000 for his prior art submissions for U.S. Patent 8,793,330. The patent is owned by HY LIT Radio Technologies Inc., an NPE. The ‘330 patent generally relates to a system and method for displaying graphics, text, animation, video, and other content.

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. Fill out the form below to download a copy of the prior art found.

WINNING SUBMISSION

$4,000 awarded for Dominion Harbor's Redwood Technologies '486 & '199 prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ganesan Rajamanickam, who was awarded a cash prize of $4,000 for his prior art submissions for U.S. Patent 9,106,486 and U.S. Patent 10,492,199. The patents are owned by Redwood Technologies, LLC, an NPE and entity of the Dominion Harbor Group. The ‘486 patent generally relates to digital radio communication methods. The ‘199 patent generally relates to communication systems for formatting data.

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 for US 9,106,486

Download Prior Art

WINNING SUBMISSION for US 10,492,199

Download Prior Art