Quest entity Taasera cyber security patent challenged

On January 23, 2024, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 7,673,137, owned by Taasera Licensing LLC, an NPE and a Quest Patent Research Corporation entity.  The ‘137 patent relates to methods of computer security using program validation. The patent has been asserted against several entities including Fortinet, Trellix, Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro, Check Point, and CrowdStrike. 

View district court litigations by Taasera Licensing. Unified is represented by Haynes & Boone, and by in-house counsel, Jordan Rossen and Roshan Mansinghani.

Bandspeed Bluetooth patent found invalid

On January 23, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,903,608, owned and asserted by Bandspeed, LLC, an NPE. The ‘608 patent is generally directed to communication devices for adaptive frequency-hopping based on channel performance. The patent had been asserted in over 20 litigations since 2014 but most recently against Renesas, Itron, Espressif Systems, TCL, ASUStek, and others.

View district court litigations by Bandspeed. Unified was represented by in-house counsel, T.J. Murphy and Roshan Mansinghani.

To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015194.

Empire IP entity Liberty Access door locks patent found invalid

On January 22, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 11,373,474 owned by Liberty Access Technologies Licensing LLC, an NPE and Empire IP LLC entity. The '474 patent is directed to access control systems for door locks via an application on a portable device. The patent had been asserted against Marriott International and ASSA ABLOY.

View district court litigations by Liberty Access Technologies Licensing. Unified was represented by Duane Morris, and by in-house counsel, T.J. Murphy and Ashraf Fawzy.

To view the reexamination request, visit Unified’s Portal: https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015231.

INPADOC Extended Families can now be searched on Unified's Portal

Unified Patents’ Portal now includes INPADOC Extended families. You can now search by and expand by Extended Family ID.

Or have that information displayed or exported in Portal:

These features are available in the Patent Search portal, as well as OPAL’s IEEE, 3GPP, and Video Codec landscapes, to enable accurate top-down counting and analysis. 

DOCDB simple families typically include a collection of patent applications covering the same technical content.

The charts below describe how a set of patents can have 4 separate simple families. The priorities taken into account are:

1. First filings - A first filing is a foreign application claimed under the Paris Convention.

2. Provisional first filings - A provisional first filing is a U.S. provisional application.

3. Equivalents to first filings - An equivalent to a first filing is a U.S. continuation-in-part.

The concept of a “simple” family excludes:

• Applications that are a continuation of an existing parent application

• Applications that are a division of an existing parent application

Continuations and divisions are considered to cover the same technical content as the parent application. Continuations and divisions will always be in a patent family with the parent application, regardless of the priorities that they claim.

Figure 1 - DOCDB SIMPLE FAMILY

Figure 2 - INPADOC EXTENDED FAMILY

(Landscape Study of Potentially Essential Patents Disclosed to ETSI)

An extended patent family is a collection of patent documents covering a technology. The technical content covered by the applications is similar, but not necessarily the same. Members of an extended patent family will have at least one priority in common with at least one other member - either directly or indirectly. Hence, the four families above, become one extended family.

Therefore, the priorities taken into account are:

• First filings, provisional first filings, and equivalents to first filings (for definitions of these terms, see above)

• Priorities that refer to an earlier related application, whether a domestic or a PCT filing

Click HERE to see Unified’s INPADOC extended families search capabilities.

Dolby HEVC/AV1 patent revoked in EPO

On January 17, 2024, the European Patent Office announced the revocation of all claims of EP 3798988. The EP ‘988 patent is owned by Dolby International AB and is related to patents that have been declared essential to Access Advance and SISVEL’s AV1 patent pools.

Unified is represented by Harry Hutchinson and Andrew McGettrick at HGF Law, and by in-house counsel, Jessica L.A. Marks and Michelle Aspen.