August 24, 2024
In a new Eastern District of Texas complaint, Telcom Ventures LLC has accused Samsung (2:24-cv-00691) of infringing eight patents that name as an inventor Rajendra ("Raj") Singh, the plaintiff's CEO. Telcom Ventures targets Samsung over the provision of Samsung Pay and various Samsung smartphones that support it, as used together to make mobile payments using biometric authentication and either near-field communication (NFC) or magnetic secure transmission (MST) technologies.
Telcom Ventures pleads that it is a Florida LLC. While a "Telcom Ventures LLC" (no comma) was formed in that state in June 2006, it was dissolved in October 2009. A Delaware entity named "TELCOM VENTURES (DELAWARE), LLC" was registered to do business in Florida in March 2008, listing the "Cross Reference Name" of "TELCOM VENTURES, LLC" (with a comma). Documents submitted to the USPTO to substantiate the assignment of the asserted patents indicated that the recipient of them is Telcom Ventures, LLC (with a comma). Both entities name Singh as a manager, as well as Serge Martin, with the Delaware entity (via Florida records) also listing Neera Singh (Raj's spouse) and Margaret Keast as manager and treasurer, respectively. Telcom Ventures (sometimes listed as "Telecom Ventures") is frequently described online as a "private investment firm".
The asserted patents include two (9,832,708; 10,219,199) that generally relate to a smartphone that communicates with an "entity" (another device) using a "first air interface" when a "proximity criterion" is met, where data is sent over a "short-range link"; and where the smartphone sends other data over a "second air interface", as well as the 10,674,432 patent, broadly directed to a short-range transfer (similar to the '708 and '199 patents) but where a "physiological parameter" is also met, where the data transferred is used to execute financial transactions.
Telcom Ventures asserts five more patents: the 11,770,756 patent, to enabling and disabling features of a mobile device based on physiological or environmental sensor data; the 11,924,743, to authorizing a financial transaction based on various data parameters, including physiological and environmental sensor data (but also potentially including a number, word, or code); the 11,937,172 and 12,028,793 patents, to executing a financial transaction using a smartphone based on a "physiological parameter" and satisfying a "proximity condition"; and the 9,462,411 patent, to selectively sending data from a smartphone to an entity where "physiological data associated with a living organism" is detected and where a "proximity condition" is satisfied, but refraining from sending that data when the physiological data is not present.
The new suit has been assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap. Alston & Bird LLP represents Telcom Ventures. 8/21, Eastern District of Texas.
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