Last July, IP Edge LLC acquired over 700 US assets, and many more foreign assets, from Technicolor SA, a provider of services and products for the communication, media, and entertainment industries. One year later, the Texas monetization firm has initiated its first litigation over assets from that acquisition, launching separate campaigns through Bataan Licensing LLC, Diatek Licensing LLC, Freetek Holdings LLC, and Triumph IP LLC.
Bataan Licensing
Bataan Licensing accuses BrightSign (1:21-cv-01072), Consumer Cellular (2:21-cv-01310), and Sonim Technologies (1:21-cv-01073) of infringing two of those former Technicolor assets (7,174,494; 7,423,982) through the provision of BrightSign Mobile, a cellular modem and service package for use with digital signage media players; against Consumer Cellular, over the ZMax 10 smartphone; and against Sonim, over rugged smartphones. Comprising a family of one, the '494 patent, generally related to cellular communications, issued to Technicolor subsidiary Thomson Licensing in February 2007 with estimated priority in July 2003. Also comprising a single-member family, the '982 patent issued to Scientific-Atlanta in September 2008 with an estimated priority date in September 2002. This patent landed in Technicolor's hands after it acquired in 2015 Cisco's set-top box and cable modem business, Cisco having acquired Scientific-Atlanta prior to that.
Diatek Licensing
Diatek Licensing accuses Apollo Global Management (Redbox Automated Retail) (6:21-cv-00778), AT&T (HBO) (1:21-cv-06457), CuriosityStream (1:21-cv-01113), MLB (MLB Advanced Media) (1:21-cv-06458), and Roku (6:21-cv-00777) of infringing two other former Technicolor patents (7,7079,752; 8,195,828) through the use of the HLS (MLB) or MPEG-DASH (AT&T, CuriosityStream, Redbox, and Roku) streaming protocol in the defendants' various media streaming products and services. Comprising a family of one, the '752 patent issued to Thomson Licensing in July 2006 with an estimated priority date in November 1999. It generally relates to recording a "scrambled digital video stream". The '828, comprising a family of one, generally relates to "discontinuous transmission of encoded video data in a network of distributed appliances" and issued in June 2012 with an estimated priority in November 2003.
Freetek Holdings
Freetek Holdings accuses Extollo Communications (2:21-cv-01021) of infringing a single patent (6,834,091)-generally related to the "synchronization of a powerline network for a plurality of devices"-through the provision of the Extollo LANSocket 1500 "AV2 MIMO HomePlug Powerline compliant adapter". The '091 patent comprises a family of one and issued to Thomson Licensing in December 2004 with an estimated priority date in April 2001.
Triumph IP
Triumph IP accuses Hunter Industries (1:21-cv-01075), Icom (2:21-cv-01017), K-Rain (9:21-cv-81308), Opticon (1:21-cv-01076), and Raisecom (1:21-cv-01077) of infringing two patents (7,177,291; 7,523,479), in overlapping sets, through the provision of devices that support of certain Wi-Fi standards, including 802.11n and/or 802.11ac.
Originating with Thomson Licensing, the '291 patent generally relates to switching channels in a wireless network when a "collision" with traffic from another nearby network is detected. It comprises a family of one, issuing in February 2007 with estimated priority in September 1999. Triumph IP asserts the '291 patent against all five defendants over the support of wireless channel selection (i.e., selecting between multiple available channel bandwidths) through the implementation of various Wi-Fi standards-802.11n (Hunter and K-Rain), 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (Icom and Raisecom), or 802.11n/ac (Opticon)-in their respective products: smart water controllers, access points, irrigation controllers, mobile scanning devices, and wireless routers. Original development work conducted at Scientific-Atlanta, the '479 patent generally relates to a communication terminal between communication modes. It issued in April 2009 with estimated priority in September 2002. Triumph IP asserts the '479 patent against Icom, Opticon, and Raisecom over their products' support of wireless channel selection via the 802.11ac standard.
About IP Edge
IP Edge was formed as prominent monetization firm IP Navigation Group, LLC (d/b/a IPNav) wound down operations when founder Erich Spangenberg "moved off" into 2014 to "do other things" thereafter (details here). Having been the director and vice president of Asia for IPNav in 2012-2013, Lillian Woung created IP Edge with fellow Texas attorneys Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi and Sanjay Pant, first in Nevada and later merging into Texas. The firm has been the top filer of NPE cases over the years since, having initiated over 135 litigation campaigns in total, both right before and of course after its move to Texas.
Typically proceeding in file-and-settle fashion, IP Edge has never taken a case to trial, with litigation usually ending at the pleadings stage, or just after. The firm usually acquires patents in small batches; its July 2020 of 700 plus assets from Technicolor is the exception. The second quarter of 2021 saw that portfolio's first visible movement since it was acquired, with IP Edge's Magnolia Licensing LLP (the primary vehicle through which IP Edge appears to have completed that acquisition) transferring former Technicolor patents to at least four IP Edge NPEs: Bataan Licensing, Diatek Licensing, Sunflower Licensing LLC, and Triumph IP; Magnolia has also apparently assigned the '091 patent to Freetek Holdings, although USPTO assignment records have yet to reflect the assignment. (The '479 patent appears to have passed through yet another IP Edge entity, Majandro LLC, before landing with Triumph IP, suggesting additional movement of these former Technicolor assets among IP Edge entities, not yet reflected in publicly available assignment records.)
Moreover, IP Edge has continued to form additional entities, likely future plaintiffs, in Texas, among them Array IP LLC; Hermes Licensing LLC; Kittleg Holdings LLC; Longbeam Technologies LLC; Spiral IP LLC; and Wiesblatt Licensing LLC; as well as US Innovation Fund LLC. That last entity is particularly notable as Bodepudi, Pant, and Woung are named directly as its managing members. IP Edge more typically identifies longtime Texas residents, usually without independent connection to patent monetization, as managers or managing members of its LLCs. The last two entities of which its founders are directly identified are Q3 Networking LLC, which is litigating before the International Trade Commission (which is a first for the firm) and Bishop Display Tech LLC, hitting Samsung with a large number of former IP Bridge, Inc. assets across two suits (also atypical practice for IP Edge).
RPX completed a deal with Technicolor in February 2020. Each of the patents asserted by either Bataan Licensing, Diatek Licensing, Freetek Holdings, or Triumph IP is covered by that deal. 7/27, BrightSign, Hunter Industries, Opticon, Raisecom, Sonim Technologies, 7/30, CuriosityStream, District of Delaware; 7/28, Consumer Cellular, District of Arizona; 7/29, K-Rain, Southern District of Florida; 7/29, AT&T (HBO), MLB (MLB Advanced Media), Southern District of New York; 7/29, Apollo Global Management (Redbox Automated Retail), Roku, Western District of Texas; 7/29, Icom, 7/30, Extollo Communications, Western District of Washington.
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