$3,000 for Valtrus Innovations' patent prior art targeting open source software Kubernetes

Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $3,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 8,379,538, owned and asserted by Valtrus Innovations Ltd., an NPE and a New PP Licensing LLC entity. The '538 patent relates to using a machine-readable monitoring model to store and maintain the configuration of a monitoring environment. A monitoring element reads that model and automatically adjusts how it operates based on the defined configuration. It has been asserted against Kubernetes implementations within applications owned or created by SAP America. Both Starbucks and Google have filed declaratory judgment actions against the ‘538 patent.

The contest will expire on July 10, 2026. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for the contest. PATROLL researchers are required to use Pearl to generate claim charts. Submitted invalidity charts must address every limitation of the challenged claim. This may require using more than one prior art reference. Each PATROLL researcher can generate up to 30 invalidity claim charts per month using Pearl. These charts can be downloaded then submitted to PATROLL.

This PATROLL contest is co-sponsored by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and is a part of a continuing series of contests in their Cloud Native Heroes Challenge program. Cloud native developers can earn swag and prizes by helping us defeat patent trolls. Find more information on CNCF and the challenges within the links below:

$2,000 for Jeffrey Gross entity, Helix Microinnovations, fabrication patent prior art

Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 17 of U.S. Patent 7,238,550, owned and asserted by Helix Microinnovations LLC, an NPE and entity of Jeffrey M. Gross. The '550 patent relates to the fabrication of chip-on-board memory modules using unpackaged semiconductor die mounted directly on a circuit board. It is currently asserted against Realtek Semiconductor, Lumileds, Luminus, and Infineon.

The contest will expire on July 10, 2026. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for the contest. PATROLL researchers are required to use Pearl to generate claim charts. Submitted invalidity charts must address every limitation of the challenged claim. This may require using more than one prior art reference. Each PATROLL researcher can generate up to 30 invalidity claim charts per month using Pearl. These charts can be downloaded then submitted to PATROLL.

$2,000 for Paypulz transactions patent prior art

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 8,732,085, owned by Paypulz LLC, an NPE. The '085 patent relates to a proxy payment card usable like a normal credit or debit card at ATMs and merchant point-of-sale terminals, including legacy systems.

The contest will expire on July 10, 2026. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for the contest. PATROLL researchers are required to use Pearl to generate claim charts. Submitted invalidity charts must address every limitation of the challenged claim. This may require using more than one prior art reference. Each PATROLL researcher can generate up to 30 invalidity claim charts per month using Pearl. These charts can be downloaded then submitted to PATROLL.

AX Wireless Wi-Fi patent challenge granted

On April 24, 2026, after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 11,777,776, owned by AX Wireless, LLC, an NPE and entity of IdeaHub. The ‘776 patent generally relates to header field configurations (e.g., header repetition) in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems (802.11n). It has been asserted against Sony, TP Link, Ubiquiti, D-Link, Vantiva, and ASUSTek. The filing is part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in the SEP Wi-Fi Zone.

View district court litigations by AX Wireless. Unified is represented by Stephen Cortiaus at Slater Matsil and by in-house counsel, David Seastrunk, Jessica L.A. Marks, and T.J. Murphy, in these proceedings.

To view the reexamination request, visit Unified’s Portal: https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90016008

Wyoming Technology vehicle patent prior art found

The team at Unified used Pearl to successfully identify and chart prior art against claim 33 of U.S. Patent 7,482,916, owned by Wyoming Technology Licensing, LLC, an NPE and entity of Leigh M. Rothschild. The ‘916 patent relates to an automatic vehicle turn-signal system. The patent has been asserted against General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Volkswagen.

Identified Prior Art

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