Route Guidance Systems vehicle guidance patent found invalid

On August 3, 2023, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of all claims of U.S. Patent 6,917,876, owned by Route Guidance Systems LLC, an NPE. The ’876 patent is directed to route guidance systems for vehicles where the calculated route is transmitted from a central computer to a vehicle over a channel of communication in a short burst and is then closed, so that transmission to the vehicle ceases, unless and until a need for further transmission arises. The patent has been asserted against ExxonMobil, Verizon, MyPizza Technologies, Honda, Salesforce, Grubhub, HERE Global, DoorDash, MapleBear, Waitr, and others.

View district court litigations by Route Guidance Systems. Unified was represented by in-house counsel, Kelly Hughes, Michelle Aspen, and Roshan Mansinghani.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015113.

VDPP video codec patent reexam granted

On July 26, 2023, less than two months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding a substantial new question of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,699,444, owned and asserted by VDPP LLC, an NPE. The '444 patent generally relates to processing image frames from a video stream and generating bridge frames for motion smoothing. The patent has been asserted against Microsoft, Vizio, Lenovo, Roku, Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, and others.

View district court litigations by VDPP. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, David Seastrunk and Alyssa Holtslander, in this proceeding.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015245.

$2,000 awarded for Dominion Harbor entity, Monument Peak Ventures, color editing patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Poonam Rani, was awarded $2,000 for his prior art submission on U.S. Patent 6,396,599, owned by Monument Peak Ventures, an NPE and Dominion Harbor entity. The ‘599 patent generally relates to a method and apparatus for modifying images on a photographic color imaging system that selectively adjusts the skin tone of individuals in images in accordance with customer preferences. The patent had been asserted against Hitachi.

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

• US 5506946

$2,000 awarded for Dominion Harbor entity, Monument Peak Ventures, automotive imaging patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ekta Aswal and Dinesh Swamy, who split a cash award of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 8,836,784, owned by Monument Peak Ventures, an NPE and Dominion Harbor entity. The ‘784 patent generally relates to automotive imaging systems employing digital cameras that automatically transmits digital images in response to detecting an exception event.

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

• US 20120021386

• US 20070132773

• US 9633318

$2,000 awarded for Dominion Harbor entity, Monument Peak Ventures, camera patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ekta Aswal, was awarded $2,000 for her prior art submission on U.S. Patent 7,860,320, owned by Monument Peak Ventures, an NPE and Dominion Harbor entity. The patent generally relates to a camera with a power supply, has a voltage detecting circuit adapted to detect a voltage level at the power source, and generates a voltage level signal. A controller receives the voltage level signal and prevents the image capture system from working when the voltage level signal indicates that there is insufficient power available.

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

• EP 1622081A1