Longhorn HD patent determined to be likely invalid

On November 12, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 7,260,846, owned and asserted by Longhorn HD LLC, an NPE and affiliate of Alpha Alpha Intellectual Partners, LLC. The ’846 patent was previously owned by Intellectual Ventures and is directed to cybersecurity techniques including detecting malicious network behavior. It had been asserted against Fortinet, Juniper Networks, and Check Point, but new assertions include NetScout Systems, Mitel Software, and Trend Micro.

View Longhorn HD’s district court litigation. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal. Unified is represented by David Tennant and David Markoff of White & Case, and in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Jung Hahm, in this proceeding.

Carucel Investments patent held unpatentable

On November 6, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Carucel Investments, L.P. holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,979,023 unpatentable. The ‘023 patent is owned by Carucel Investments, an NPE, and relates to mobile communication systems for vehicles. The patent had been asserted against numerous automotive companies such as Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz.

Unified was represented by Raghav Bajaj and David McCombs from Haynes and Boone, and by in-house counsel, Michelle Aspen and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding. View Carucel's district court litigation here. To read the decision and view the entire case proceeding, visit our Portal.

DigiMedia Tech patent challenged as likely invalid

On November 6, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,715,476, formally owned by Intellectual Ventures but now owned by DigiMedia Tech LLC, an NPE and an IP Investments Group entity. The ‘476 patent is generally related to displaying video images generated by a camera on a display, and more particularly to tracking a head portion of a person image in camera-generated video images. The ‘476 patent has been asserted against Olympus Corp., Fujifilm Holdings, Sakar International, Nikon, JK Imaging, and Elite Brands.

View district court litigations by DigiMedia Tech. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Trenton Ward at Finnegan, and by in-house counsel, David Seastrunk and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

Second Fortress Amicus Filed

On November 3, 2020, Unified Patents, together with CableLabs, filed a second amicus brief in the refiled Intel Corp. v. Fortress Investment Group LLC, et al., and took the opportunity to help educate the Court on Fortress' now-frequent practice of using high-interest recourse loans to acquire questionable patents for serial assertion. A copy of the as-filed brief can be found below, and a copy of the original brief, which went into detail about litigation financing and other forms of serial NPE assertion, is also listed below.

Unified's Patent Quality Initiative aims to provide data, studies, and testimonials to give policymakers and practitioners a clear picture of the state of the patent system. More information about our PQI efforts can be found here.

Motion to File Amicus in Intel v. Fortress 3Nov2020 by Jennifer M Gallagher on Scribd

Second Amicus of Unified Et Al. in Intel v. Fortress 3Nov2020 by Jennifer M Gallagher on Scribd

First Amicus Brief - Unified March2020 by Jennifer M Gallagher on Scribd

Qwikcash settles with Unified Patents

On October 7, 2020, the Board issued an order terminating IPR2020-00972 pursuant to a joint settlement request filed by Unified Patents and Qwikcash, LLC, an NPE. U.S. Patent 8,714,445, related to a cash transfer system, has been asserted against Blackhawk Network, Inc.

Unified was represented by Jason Mudd of Erise IP in this proceeding. View Qwikcash’s district court litigation.  To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.