General Video, LLC has filed separate complaints against Acer (5:24-cv-00125), ASUSTek (5:24-cv-00126), Dell (5:24-cv-00124), HP (5:24-cv-00123), and Lenovo (5:24-cv-00122) in the Eastern District of Texas. Asserted against each defendant are six data transmission patents described as "generally directed to the high-speed, efficient, and secure transmission of audio and video data between transmitting and receiving devices", and targeted is the provision of a wide array of products—organized under "four general categories" in the complaints: laptop computers, desktop computers, computer monitors, and video/graphics cards—that are compliant with various DisplayPort standards.
The plaintiff characterizes the asserted patents (6,584,443; 7,069,224; 7,225,282; 7,359,437; 9,036,010; 9,843,786) as "included among the pool of patents licensed and offered for license as part of the DisplayPort Patent Portfolio License (the 'DP License') offered through the Via Licensing Corporation d/b/a Via Licensing Alliance". General Video further pleads that before inclusion "as part of the DP License", each of the patents was "determined by an independent consultant to be an SEP [sic] with respect to one or more version of the DisplayPOrt and/or eDP standards".
As RPX reported last year and as updated this past month, General Video has been collecting patents since September 2023, when it picked up three former Panasonic patents (generally related to encryption, a communication system, and media playback) from Sun Patent Trust (SPT) to. In 2020-2021, SPT—holding a patent portfolio reportedly comprising over 3,000 patent assets providing "protection in North America, Europe and Asia"—litigated its only US patent case to date, suing HTC over four wireless communications patents received from Panasonic. The assignment of another batch of patents (six this time) from SPT to General Video subsequently came to light, also moved last September, recorded in December 2023, and later made public, with an April 1, 2024 divestiture from Philips to General Video of eight patents appearing in a transfer recorded on July 4, 2024 and then made public.
General Video was formed in Delaware in July 2019. It has yet to file its corporate disclosure with the Western District of Texas, but in a 2021 audit report, IdeaHub, Inc. a Korean monetization operation, disclosed "General Video, LLC" among the following subsidiaries: AX Wireless LLC (of which IoT Licensing, LLC has been disclosed as the parent corporation); Glocom, Inc.; Helios Streaming, LLC; Hybrid Audio LLC; IdeaHub GmbH; IP Co., LLC; ImberaTek LLC; Modern Telecom Systems, LLC; Pantech Corporation; Pantech Wireless, LLC; SIPCO LLC; SynKloud Technologies, LLC; and Triple Reality Technologies LLC.
The public website of IDEAHUB seems to confirm the connection, as its advertised firm timeline contains the 2023 event "Acquired Panasonic DisplayPort standard patent" and the 2024 event "Acquired Philips DisplayPort standard patent". A March 2024 news release on the website hails IDEAHUB among new licensors of Via Licensing's ATSC 3.0 patent pool (with Technology in Ariscale, LLC and SK Telecom). For detailed coverage concerning IDEAHUB, see here.
General Video pleads that the alleged infringement by each defendant has been willful, contending that knowledge was imparted on various dates, as early as March 2015, at a time when MPEG LA (acquired by Via Licensing in 2023) sent notice letters at least as to some of the asserted patents. McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd. and Patton, Tidwell & Culbertson, LLP represent General Video. The cases have been assigned to District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III. 8/30, Eastern District of Texas.
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