Patent Filings Roundup: Glut of Settlements; Fortress and Apple Settle Seven Networks; Fintiv Applies to ITC

As we head into the holidays, district court patent filings were down (51) and settlements/terminations up (51), with another 32 petitions filed before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The filings for the Board are fewer than usual in general, though given that frequent filer WSOU provoked at least eight inter partes reviews (IPRs) from Huawei, driving the number up a tad. Once-frequent filer Empire IP resurfaced with a number of new suits, too. What are the odds we have a quiet end of the year?

Settlement City: Normally I don’t report on terminations, but it’s worth noting that in the past week, 51 district court complaints were terminated, ostensibly as courts and parties move into the holidays and try to clear out work and take care of matters/get credit in 2020 prior to the inevitable en-of-year lull. Many appear to be the typical file-and-settle fare, including cases brought by IP Edge, Leigh Rothschild, and other large-scale aggregators like IP Investments Group, Fortress, and the like.

The ITC: It Just Keeps Going, and Going, and Going… Korean Battery competitors SK Innovation Co. Ltd. and LG Chem, Ltd., both of whom provide batteries for tons of electric vehicles, have been locked in an International Trade Commission (ITC) battle for months. Accused respondent SK Innovation brought IPRs on the four patents relatively quickly (six challenges in total, of those discussed this week); the Board denied all six based on the ITC trial, effectively extending Fintiv’s reasoning to ITC cases. The decisions were the subject of an unrelated Board panel change order the same day that they issued, removing administrative patent judge Grace Obermann, who has been nominated to the Court of Federal Claims and looks to likely be confirmed prior to the end of the Congressional term.

Fortress of Solitude: It appears Apple and Fortress IP have settled their wide-ranging disputes, at least for now. After having been sued on Seven Networks patents in the Eastern District of Texas, and then filing at least 16 IPRs against them (and running into and overcoming General Plastics/Fintiv) and then having the November trial date suspended by COVID, Apple and Fortress IP appear to have settled their difference and have moved to dismiss at least the 16 IPRs, the district court case (CITE), and their part of the Fortress IP antitrust complaint (filed in conjunction with Intel). (CITE).

It’s an interesting thought experiment to ask whether the case would have settled had the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office used their discretion to deny those petitions after the substantial investment in them, particularly given that the trial date never materialized—would those matters have settled?  But as they didn’t, it’s just idle speculation. Those matters challenge a whole portfolio of patents and include the now-terminated IPR2020-00584, IPR2020-00279, IPR2020-00506, IPR2020-00255, IPR2020-00235, IPR2020-00180, IPR2020-00285, IPR2020-00157, IPR2020-00236, IPR2020-00280, IPR2020-00188, IPR2020-00266 IPR2020-00156, IPR2020-00707, IPR2020-00490, and IPR2020-00491. It’s also interesting to compare them to the denials in the similarly situated Intel v. VLSI case, another brought by a Fortress subsidiary whose trial date hasn’t materialized, but over which a similar number of IPRs were denied under Fintiv.

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