MicroPairing Technologies LLC has filed separate Middle District of Tennessee suits against Mitsubishi (3:21-cv-00631) and Nissan (3:21-cv-00633), the two automakers joining GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, and Toyota, all of which have active cases against them in this campaign—two each, in fact, for GM and Toyota. In late July, the plaintiff filed additional suits against each of those defendants in the Western District of Texas, asserting three more patents apiece. Ten patents total are now asserted, in overlapping sets, across the campaign's cases, now filed in Tennessee, as well as California and Texas.
Each new Tennessee complaint asserts four of those patents (7,178,049; 7,793,136; 8,006,117; 8,020,028), each generally related to an application management system in a multiprocessor system. The '049, '117, and '028 patents are at issue in the second West Texas complaints filed against GM and Toyota. MicroPairing, a Texas entity, received its portfolio from a Canadian counterpart, including patents previously asserted by Eagle Harbor Holdings, L.L.C. and MediusTech LLC against Ford. Automobiles equipped with infotainment systems are targeted throughout.
To trace the path of these patents into MicroPairing's hands, as well as for coverage of the individuals controlling the plaintiff, see "Another Round Filed in MicroPairing's In-Vehicle Infotainment Campaign" (May 2021). That "another round" refers to May 2021 cases filed against Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Mazda in the Central District of California, which followed the campaign's initial suits, filed against GM and Toyota in the Western District of Texas. Those cases have entered claim construction, the hearing date for which having been postponed to October 1, 2021 and District Judge Alan D. Albright having yet to resolve a motion filed by Toyota, asking the court to issue preclusion to dismiss certain claims based on activity in the Ford case.
The new Tennessee suits have been assigned to District Judges Eli J. Richardson (relatively new to the bench, having been appointed in 2018) and Aleta A. Trauger (more experienced, having been seated on the federal bench 20 years earlier). 8/13, Middle District of Tennessee.
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