PTAB

Helios Streaming/Ideahub patent held invalid

On February 7, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Ideahub Inc. holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,645,562 invalid and denying Helios' motion to amend the claims. The ‘562 patent is owned by Ideahub, Inc., and licensed to and asserted by Helios Streaming, LLC, an NPE. The patent is directed to an adaptive streaming service using metadata and is being asserted against Showtime, Vudu, Crackle, and Starz. Helios is asserting the ‘562 patent against streaming media content in accordance with the MPEG-DASH standard and video-on-demand (VOD) systems. 

View district court litigation by Ideahub and Helios. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by WilmerHale and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Jung Hahm, in this proceeding.

Dynamic IP Deals subsidiary, AuthWallet, patent likely invalid

On February 4, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 9,292,852, owned by AuthWallet, LLC, an NPE and subsidiary of Dynamic IP Deals. The '852 generally relates to transaction processing services. It has been asserted against CitiGroup, Square, American Express, Starbucks, and Nordstrom.

View district court litigations by AuthWallet, LLC. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by Jason Mudd of Erise IP and by in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Jordan Rossen.

Velos '086 patent successfully challenged

On January 27, 2022, less than a year after Unified filed its request for ex parte reexamination, the USPTO issued a final office action rejecting all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,743,086, owned by Velos Media. The '086 patent was purportedly essential to the HEVC standard. During reexamination, to overcome the rejections, Velos was forced to greatly amend the claims of the '086 patent such that they are no longer essential.

Unified is represented by David Cavanaugh, Scott Bertulli, Brian Lambson, and Jonathan Knight from WilmerHale and by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy and Jessica L.A. Marks, in this proceeding. To view any documents for the reexamination proceedings on Unified's Portal, go to https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90014637.

Engle Grange patent held invalid

On January 19, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Engle Grange, LLC holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,548,645 invalid. The ‘645 patent is generally directed towards a two-step key fob authentication system for an automobile. The patent was asserted against Ford in early 2020.

View district court litigations by Engle Grange. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified was represented by in-house counsel, David Seastrunk and Roshan Mansinghani, in this proceeding.

Causam Enterprises patent challenged

On January 18, 2022, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 10,396,592. The ‘592 patent is owned by Causam Enterprises, Inc., an NPE. The ’592 Patent relates to active load management systems and has been asserted in district court and the ITC against Ecobee, Resideo, Alarm.com, Xylem, and Itron.

View district court litigations by Causam Enterprises. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified is represented by in-house counsel, Jordan Rossen and Ashraf Fawzy.