California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has added a case against Samsung ( 2:21-cv-00446) to the litigation campaign that saw a large infringement verdict against Apple and Broadcom in January of this year. The university again asserts the same five patents in suit against the other three defendants in active district court cases: Dell, HP, and Microsoft. Caltech targets Samsung over the provision of various “Wi-Fi products” (e.g., computers, refrigerators, smartphones, smart watches, tablets, TVs, etc.) that are compliant with certain Wi-Fi standards (802.11n, 802.11ac, and/or 802.11ax) and the 12 low-density parity-check (LDPC) error correction codes incorporated in those standards.
Those allegations track those in the earlier cases, all of which have been stayed before District Judge Alan D. Albright in the Western District of Texas to await the outcome of the appeal that Apple and Broadcom took from the January 2020 verdict. There, the Central District of California jury awarded $1.1B in damages—$837.8M against Apple and $270.2M against Broadcom. Myriad issues were appealed, the Federal Circuit yet to issue a decision after a September 1, 2021 oral argument.
Caltech's asserted patents ( 7,116,710; 7,421,032; 7,716,552; 7,916,781; 8,284,833) are broadly directed to coding systems. In its complaint, the plaintiff describes the ‘552 patent as directed to a “new class of error correction codes called ‘repeat and accumulate codes' (or ‘RA codes')” and the remaining patents as a “new class of error correction codes related to RA codes called ‘irregular repeat and accumulate codes' (or ‘IRA codes')”. For further background concerning this campaign, see “ Caltech Files Original Complaint Against Microsoft, Amended Complaints Against Dell, HP” (March 2021).
The case against Samsung has been assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. 12/3, Eastern District of Texas.
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