Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) filings were down substantially this week, with just 16 filed, possibly given the rush to file before the fee increase probably cleared some dockets—or it could just be a fluke. District court patent filings were down just a tad from the usual 70 or so, with 68, fueled by megafiler WSOU adding another defendant in a half-dozen suits, this time NEC Corp. Otherwise, the jump in business method patent assertions is evident, and parties are filing counterfeiting/brand enforcement actions with design and utility patents at a healthy clip. All of that will be overshadowed by the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in Arthrex and the shadow it casts, but it’s worth noting that in the meantime monetization entities aren’t skipping a beat.
Food Court Friday: On Friday, Equitable IP subsidiary Push Data LLC asserted a portfolio of patents against 10 different retailers, mostly fast food retailers like Dunkin Donuts, Chipotle (owned by McDonald’s), Burger King, Panera Bread, Jack in the Box, and Papa John’s, with outdoor retailer REI and two hotel companies thrown in for good measure. The portfolio is a slice of Endpoint IP LLC’s Aido Mobility LLC portfolio, which is the second time they have transferred part of that portfolio to another monetization entity. The accused products are all mobile apps and the patents themselves—at least the four that were asserted—reflect relatively generic mobile web searching that considers user preference, location tags or push notifications.
Uncovered Business Method Patents: When the covered business method (CBM) program expired, commenters predicted that a slew of formerly suspect patents might be asserted. I wasn’t so sure; the CBM program itself had been lifeless since Alice motions in district court had come to dominate subject matter challenges given timing, cost, and the power to cancel entire portfolios in a single judicial order. I assumed at least that non-practicing entities (NPEs) would wait awhile or would need some time to seek licensing fees for their previously suspect assets. But in the month since the program expired, we’ve seen numerous new LLCs asserting business method patents against banks and transactions software—like Kioba Processing LLC adding Bank of America to their five-patent ongoing suit this week, in 2:20-cv-00328; and last week, IP Edge dropping the Milestone IP, LLC suits against banks, added banks to Sapphire Crossing, LLC, and IP Valuation added banks to their Lupercal LLC suit on U.S. 9,386,094; the list goes on. It appears I was wrong, and the sunsetting of the CBM program has lead to more suits against banks, though only time will tell.
Counterfeit Bill: Just a quick note that we’ve seen an increasing number of sometimes-hybrid design/utility patent actions this year on what appear to all be counterfeiting actions meant to stymie Chinese defendants (who, in these actions, often default) and seize/recover available funds upon default. This week frequent anti-counterfeit suit filer Oakley filed another design patent action, 1:20-cv-05943, as did Playology, LLC, 2:20-cv-09255. The rise of such actions, one would assume, probably coincides with takedown or third-party actions on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Etsy, and they’ve led to an uptick in these omnibus filings against “The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule “A”— so if you see that in filing lists, it’s likely a large-scale effort at recovery.
PTAB (16) |
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District Court (68) |
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