Patent Filings Roundup: Mystery NPEs File New Suits on Old IV Assets; PTAB Discretionarily Denies 14; Causam Enterprises Launches Major Campaign

In a relatively subdued week, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) saw 35 challenges and the district courts 53 new patent filings. Those challenges included a slew against Centripetal Networks and Stratosaudio patents, as well as a number of memory authentication district court campaigns launched, including one major new non-practicing entity (NPE) suit by Causam Enterprises against Ecobee, Itron, Residio, and Alarm.com for patents related to power consumption.

Board Denies 14 Using Discretion: There were 14 discretionary denials this week, led by six Section 325(d) denials in challenges by BMW and Mercedes-Benz on asserted Stragent [Oso IP] patents; four more Section 325(d) denials in the Medtronic/Speyside Medical spat; and  four Section 314 denials, two on Ecofactor patents discussed below, the other two in on petitions filed by Global Tel*Link Corporation against HLFIP Holding, Inc. patents.  To compare, there were six merits denials this week.

In the Ecofactor, Inc. challenges, note that one ongoing action (against Alarm.com) was already stayed in Delaware; the other in the Western District of Texas, against Google, the petitioner here, was pending.  The trial was scheduled seven months after institution per the Western District’s standard order, which was subsequently delayed almost two months; nonetheless, the Board credited that date in denying the petition under Fintiv.

Mystery Texas NPEs Sharing a Common Address File Slew of New Suits on Old IV Patents: A few newly- ormed Austin-based LLCs sharing the same corporate address and counsel (106 E 6th St., Suite 900, Austin, TX 78701 and Ni, Wang, & Massaud) filed new suits with old Intellectual Ventures patents this week; at least one of the entities, Pixel Display LLC, has complied with the bare disclosure requirements, indicating they have no parent corporations and no publicly owned company owns more than 10% of their stock. The other, InnoMemory, LLC, has no disclosed ownership or management interest. They appear to be associated with similar entities run or owned in the past by Alexander Dobrescu and Beatriz Lopez, though obviously ownership and interest is obscured here. Both assert a single patent transferred from Intellectual Ventures sometime last year.

Brace for Inequitable Conduct: It’s worth noting briefly that Active Creations LLC filed a declaratory judgment action for inequitable conduct against a Chinese entity, Beijing Jinwei Kangda Medical Instrument Ltd., for filing for and receiving two U.S. design patents on knee braces. Presumably the filings are, allegedly, direct copies of the U.S. company’s designs. The patents are D883498, D883500 and the suit is 2:21-cv-00406.