Patent Filings Roundup: Qualcomm Keeps Monterey at Bay; H&R Block Hit with Revived Uniloc Patent; Board Rejects 11 Intel Petitions Against Fortress Sub

District court patent filings and filings with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were relatively subdued this week, with 53 new complaints and 31 PTAB filings; the PTAB filings were puffed up by L&L Candle Company firing off three IPRs against Sterno company, three diaper IPRs dropped on Paul Hartmann AG, and Qualcomm IPRs as outlined below; the district court saw the typical activity, plus a pro se Patent Term Adjustment suit and a few further complaints from frequent and longtime litigants Gil Hyatt and Lakshmi Arunchalam.

Qualcomm tries keeping Monterey at Bay: Qualcomm filed IPRs against an often-asserted patent once the subject of an International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation by Cypress Semiconductor, then later asserted by Vector Capital Corp.-backed Monterey Research, LLC (and apparently at one point, Marvell Semiconductor). The patent, which has been reexamined and IPRed by AMD, and was the subject of the ITC case as well as district court case, seems prime for discretionary denial by the Board.

Chip off the H&R Block: Kansas-based H&R Block is the latest to feel the sting of a Softbank-controlled Uniloc patent suit, this one on once-cancelled claims under 101 that were recently reversed by the Federal Circuit.  It didn’t take long for the Fortress-funded Uniloc to sue again, this time in Missouri Federal Court.

Impenetrable Fortress: Another Fortress subsidiary, VLSI Technology, completed a total coup at the PTAB, getting the Board to deny all 11 petitions Intel filed under their NHK Spring/Fintiv “discretionary denial” rules. The underlying district court case, filed in the Western District of Texas, is set for trial later this year; Intel filed all of their petitions within the one-year bar (and in many instances much sooner).  In the denials, as it has in others, the Board refused to consider factors not found in precedential decisions.