This past September saw two single-asset assignments from Korea University Research and Business Foundation (KURBF) to apparent IP Edge LLC entities, each of which launched a litigation campaign at the end of November. Scanton Technologies, LLC sued Avalanche Technology ( 1:21-cv-01688) and Everspin Technologies ( 6:21-cv-01238) over the provision of spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) products, while Whirlwind Licensing LLC hit Infineon (Cypress Semiconductor) ( 6:21-cv-01236) over the inclusion of certain clock modulation features within the Cypress Traveo II for Body CYT4BF Series of automotive microcontrollers.
KURBF, an arm of Korea University, transferred Scanton's patent ( 7,742,333) on September 2, and assigned the second asset ( 8,319,537) to Whirlwind one week later. IP Edge recorded both transactions on November 23. Comprising a family of one, the '333 patent generally relates to a "magnetic memory device". It issued in June 2010 with estimated priority in June 2007. Also comprising a family of one, the '537 patent issued in November 2012 with estimated priority in June 2010. While KURBF has assigned US patents to Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) or Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. in the past, these deals with IP Edge mark the only transfers to NPEs to appear in recent (publicly available) USPTO records.
Elsewhere, IP Edge is actively litigating—against myriad other defendants—patents sourced through Monterey Research, LLC but that had been developed at . . . Cypress Semiconductor. Most recently, at the end of October 2021, IP Edge plaintiffs Copperfield Licensing LLC sued Applied Materials, Bruker, KLA, and MKS Instruments and Burbank Technologies LLC hit CenTrak and Phyton, both over former Cypress patents. Those campaigns brought to ten the number of IP Edge plaintiffs to litigate patents received from Monterey Research, which assigned assets to the firm in February 2020 (six, via Spindletop IP LLC) and November 2020 (20, via Spearhead IP LLC). (Monterey Research is a subsidiary of Vector Capital's IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue). It holds hundreds of patent assets from Cypress, litigating some of them itself; Cypress was acquired by Infineon Technologies in April 2020.)
This set of acquisitions and assertions could be depicted as follows...
...which might call to mind at least the start of "a column of air moving rapidly around and around in a cylindrical or funnel shape"—in other words, a whirlwind. (It is unclear whether "scanton" is a misspelling of the now more prominent small town in Pennsylvania; builds off the slim fit Tommy Hilfiger branded jeans, which apparently "sit[] below [the] waist" and are "cut slim from hip to hem"; or refers to something else. IP Edge has a history of jaunty naming conventions.)
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 in the wake of that move, 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 170 litigation campaigns in total, both right before and of course after its move to Texas.
IP Edge litigation typically occurs in file-and-settle fashion through LLCs created in Texas, as is the case here, each of those plaintiffs often disclosing a longtime Texas resident—other than Bodepudi, Pant, or Woung—as its manager, managing member, or member. (Here, that manager is Matthew Oltremari, an individual similarly positioned with respect to several other IP Edge LLCs.) However, several other entities have been directly formed by the IP Edge trio of principals: Q3 Networking LLC, which marked the most notable departure from the firm's usual practices by taking an action filed against CommScope, HP Enterprise (HPE), and NETGEAR through an evidentiary hearing before the International Trade Commission (ITC) this year; Bishop Display Tech LLC, which, in another departure, has hit Samsung with a large number of former IP Bridge, Inc. patents across two concurrently filed Western District of Texas suits; and US Innovation Fund LLC, which does not appear to have received any patents, according to currently available USPTO records, but is curiously named.
The former KURBF portfolios are but a couple of many that IP Edge has begun litigating this year, chief among them a much larger set of assets—number above 700—that the firm acquired in 2020 from Technicolor SA, a provider of services and products for the communication, media, and entertainment industries. IP Edge has now initiated 15 litigation campaigns from the portfolio, still only asserting under 25 patents from among those received, against nearly 60 defendants to date. RPX covered the latest of those filings earlier in December.
Other portfolios brought to litigation by IP Edge over the past year or so have included sets of patents acquired from Empire Technology Development LLC, France Brevets SAS, Golba, Huawei, and John D. Almon. For a broad view of IP Edge's considerable effect on the patent monetization landscape, see " IP Edge Keeps Up the Pace, Goes to Trial in Q3" (October 2021).
The case against Avalanche has been assigned to District Judge Leonard P. Stark; the suit against Everspin, to District Judge Alan D. Albright, who also presides over the case filed by Whirlwind against Cypress. 11/30, Avalanche, District of Delaware; 11/30, Cypress Semiconductor, Everspin, Western District of Texas.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
