Unified Patents launches Unified IP Services with experienced Search team

Unified recently welcomed Tom Kepner and John Wootress to launch patent search services and lead a highly experienced search team. For nearly a decade, this team has consistently delivered exceptional patentability, invalidity, freedom-to-operate (FTO), and landscape searches for numerous clients within the High-Tech and Life Science fields. The team has received many accolades worldwide and has won two PATROLL contests with prior art submitted on a set of Theranos patents.

Unified can now offer its members even more valuable services and marks an important new phase in its expansion. The IP Services team excels at uncovering difficult-to-find prior art and presenting it effectively to help companies understand: the white space and potentially problematic patents within their targeted technology areas; or the likelihood of success before the USPTO when filing for patent protection or to invalidate patents.

For more information, visit www.unifiedips.com or email us at info@unifiedips.com.

$2,000 awarded for Jeffrey M. Gross entity, Auth Token, authentication patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Calvin Zhong, Andrei Gilya, Huang Chien-Cheng, and Ekta Aswal, who split an award of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 8,375,212, owned and asserted by Auth Token LLC, an NPE and entity of Jeffrey M. Gross. The '212 patent describes an authentication token system utilizing smart card technology for secure access control. It has been asserted against in over 45 district cases but most recently against Ally Financial.

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

• AU 735885 

• US 5534857

• WO 1999040548

• US 5757918

Dominion Harbor entity, Arlington Technologies, networking patent prior art found

Unified is pleased to announce prior art has been found on U.S. Patent 9,507,015, owned by Arlington Technologies LLC, an NPE and entity of Dominion Harbor Group. The ‘015 patent relates to determining proximity to an external device through luminance measurement and comparison to a threshold.

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 SUBMISSIONS

• US 20140035807

• US 20120309313

• US 20130266327

Droplets GUI patent challenged

On May 1, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination request challenging claims 1-4, 17-19, 26, 27, 70, and 97 of U.S. Patent 6,687,745, owned by Droplets, Inc. The ‘745 patent relates to a method and system for delivering interactive links for presenting applications and client-specific information at a client computer from remote sources in a network. It is currently being asserted against several parties, including Walmart, Ford, Home Depot, and AT&T.

View district court litigations by Droplets. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Andrea Shoffstall and Roshan Mansinghani.

Former Velos EP video codec patent held invalid after appeal at EPO

On March 27, 2025, the amended and narrowed claims of EP 2 347 592 B1, formerly owned by Velos Media, LLC and now owned by Qualcomm, were held unpatentable by the Board of Appeals. EP’592 was part of the Velos portfolio before it was reassigned to Qualcomm. This filing is a part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

Unified was represented at the opposition hearing by Dr. Susan Keston and Dr. Andrew McGettrick of HGF. In-house support was provided by Jessica L.A. Marks and Roshan Mansinghani.