A plaintiff calling itself "Querytron-Heggem LLC" has filed separate lawsuits against Alibaba (2:24-cv-00848) and Fiverr (2:24-cv-00850) in the Eastern District of Texas, as well as a complaint against Redfin (6:24-cv-00558) in the Western District of Texas. All three concern a single patent generally related to refining Internet search results, with infringement allegations targeting the defendants' platforms, as advertised for facilitating business-to-business (B2B) purchasing. Records in the plaintiff's identified state of formation apparently do not contain an entity named "Querytron-Heggem LLC" but do contain a "Querytron LLC".
The patent asserted here (8,849,707) issued to sole named inventor Richard A. Heggem, then of Morgan Hill, California, as part of a two-member family, the other patent issuing in January 2020. The pair shares estimated priority in January 2006, at a time when Heggem reports on social media that he was CEO of MyHandshake.com, dubbed as "eHarmony.com for business", a "web service company that connects business-to-business buyers and sellers". Heggem reports that in this position he "[f]iled 10 strategic, forward-thinking patents with 200 claims by analyzing current technologies and anticipating future trends". Heggem further reports that he is now the CEO with Where Might I Live?, where he has "[c]reated America's first third-generation technology to help people evaluate where they live and discover locations that better fit their needs".
No assignment of the '707 patent away from Heggem appears in currently available USPTO records, but Querytron pleads ownership. Whatever its exact name, the plaintiff does appear to have been formed in New Mexico, as it pleads, on September 11, 2024, albeit (at least according to that state's available records) as simply Querytron LLC. The new complaints all conform to a by-now familiar boilerplate, as filed by Rabicoff Law LLC. A pattern has been developing over the course of 2024, of recently formed New Mexico plaintiffs launching litigation over patents received shortly after formation (as confirmed by assignment records later made public) and through the representation of Rabicoff Law. For other examples, see RPX's coverage of new campaigns initiated by CelluPlex LLC, Data Resonance LLC, e-Beacon LLC, Payvox LLC, and Pointwise Ventures LLC. Recently filed cases from Pointwise Ventures in the District of Delaware have provided insight into the ownership of at least that New Mexico entity; for details, see here.
The new suits have yet to be assigned to judges. 10/19, Alibaba, Fiverr, Eastern District of Texas; 10/19, Redfin, Western District of Texas.
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