MORRIS ROUTING TECHNOLOGIES, LLC (MRT) has filed separate lawsuits against AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (4:24-cv-00623), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (4:24-cv-00625), Samsung (4:24-cv-00624)) and Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (4:24-cv-00626) over their various networks (e.g., 5G, fixed-line, fiber, IP, and wireless) and networking solutions. At issue is the support for segment routing (SR) technologies, including the "functionality specified in the SF RFCs" published by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards setting organization. Asserted in non-overlapping subsets are 31 of the 39 wireless networking patents that currently available USPTO records suggest that MRT holds; Texas records indicate that the patents' sole named inventor is backing this litigation.
MRT accuses AT&T of infringing seven patents (10,397,101; 10,411,998; 10,447,575; 10,476,787; 10,498,642; 10,757,020; 10,764,171) through the provision of "AT&T Networks" that support the functionality specified in the SR RFCs (Requests for Comment); Samsung, of infringing seven different patents (10,419,335; 10,476,788; 10,594,594; 10,652,150; 10,721,164; 10,735,306; 11,196,660) through the provision of networking solutions that support SR and the SR RFCs, including but not limited to Samsung's Core, RAN, and SDN solutions; T-Mobile, of infringing nine additional patents (10,212,076; 10,374,938; 10,397,100; 10,404,583; 10,587,505; 10,708,168; 10,785,143; 10,904,144; 11,012,344) through the provision of "T-Mobile Networks" that support the functionality specified in the SR RFCs; and Verizon, of infringing a final eight patents (10,367,737; 10,382,327; 10,389,624; 10,389,625; 10,404,582; 10,411,997; 10,419,334; 10,841,198) through the provision of such "Verizon Networks".
The plaintiff received these patents in a November 2022 transfer from Sitting Man LLC, an entity formed in Delaware in September 2013, apparently to hold patents naming Robert Paul Morris as their inventor. That same month Sitting Man divested four patents to Rafqa Star, LLC (which litigated two of its received assets against Alphabet (Google) between November 2022 and November 2023), after having offloaded batches to American Inventor Tech, LLC, Grus Tech LLC, and Vulpecula, LLC on March 4 of that year. Those divestments followed even earlier transfers, to Gummarus, LLC, Jenam Tech, LLC, and Motion Offense, LLC, back in 2018.
All these other entities, except Jenam Tech, litigated a single campaign that began with an April 2019 Gummarus suit against Samsung, after which American Inventor Tech, Grus Tech, and Vulpecula each also sued Samsung and after which Dropbox (and its customer Sprouts Farmers Market), Google, and LG Electronics (LGE) were each drawn into the campaign by one or more of these plaintiffs. Jenam Tech litigated a separate campaign over its received Morris assets, suing Google, LGE, and Samsung from April 2019 through January 2024. The first campaign remains active against only Dropbox, Motion Offense having failed to convince a Western District of Texas jury through a May 2023 trial that Dropbox infringed any of the asserted claims from four patents tried.
That verdict has become a subject of controversy, with District Judge Alan D. Albright withdrawing a verbal entry of judgment after the jury ignored a "stop instruction", the jury proceeding to return its findings as to certain priority dates and as to invalidity after finding none of the asserted claims infringed. Motion Offense and Dropbox have submitted requested briefing on whether the jury's noninfringement finding robs the court of subject matter jurisdiction over the remaining questions, since both were posed in response to Dropbox's affirmative defenses, not its counterclaims. Judge Albright has yet to enter judgment.
Motion Offense filed another case against Dropbox, in April 2023 in the Western District of Texas over a more recently issued patent in the same family as those tried to the jury. Dropbox has filed a motion to stay that case pending entry of final judgment in the prior suit, arguing that because the patent claims at issue are so similar claim and/or issue preclusion may apply. Other early motions remain pending in this later-filed case as well. Motion Offense is represented by the Devlin Law Firm LLC, which also filed the complaint for MRT.
MRT was formed in Texas on November 1, 2022, the day before it received its Morris patent portfolio from Sitting Man. It identifies Brian D. Owens as its manager. Owens appears to be a Texas attorney practicing patent prosecution at the Goodhue, Coleman & Owns, P.C. firm. By contrast, the other entities receiving patents from Sitting Man, discussed above, have direct ties to Andrew Gordon, a familiar figure in patent monetization (going by Andrew G. Gordon and George Gordon as well), with those connections explored further at "The Crane, The Little Fox, and the Sitting Man Patents" (March 2020). For example, Rafqa Star, which, as noted, litigated its received assets against Google between November 2022 and November 2023, is identified as managed directly by Gordon.
Current Texas records suggest that MRT is in tax forfeiture with the state, as of February 2024. Texas records also indicate that both Morris and Sitting Man retain an interest in the outcome of MRT's litigation. The suits have been assigned to District Judge Sean D. Jordan. 7/8, Eastern District of Texas.
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