Droplets, Inc. has filed a new round of cases, one against each of AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (2:24-cv-00967), Ford (2:24-cv-00968), Home Depot (2:24-cv-00969), and Walmart (2:24-cv-00970), all in the Eastern District of Texas. Asserted is a single patent, acknowledged to have expired in November 2021 and generally related to web-based app delivery. The complaints target the provision of "interactive functionalities" via the defendants' respective mobile apps. This campaign, one of the oldest, began in 2006 and has seen two jury verdicts in favor of Droplets, most recently in a case filed against Yahoo! (together with others) back in September 2011.
The patent asserted in these complaints (6,687,745) issued in February 2004 as the first in a family of six, two others of which (7,502,838; 8,402,115) have also been litigated in this campaign. The family has earliest estimated priority reaching back to September 1999 based on the filing of a provisional application. An inter partes reexamination certificate issued for the '745 patent in March 2011, affirming the patentability of all original claims (1-26) and adding roughly 75 more (27-104). Among its seven named inventors are Louis ("Lou") M. Franco and Frank L. Rose (secretary), both of whom are still identified in state records as principals with Droplets, together with David Berberian, Jr. (president), Paul Biddelman (CFO), and Ingo Theuerkauf (treasurer).
Droplets pleads that the inventors here, "working at a company called SphereSoft, where they were developing an online tool for stock traders", came up with a "fundamentally novel way for webpages to work": "instead of always updating an entire webpage, update just the relevant part of the webpage". On social media, Franco identifies a 1997-2000 project manager position with SphereSoft, followed by a 2000-2004 "Chief Software Architect" position with Droplets, as well as a "contract" position as "Board Member and Vice President" with Droplets from April 2010 through today. Rose characterizes his connection to Droplets as "Co-founder/CTO", fulltime from 2000-2007 and then parttime from that point to present.
The plaintiff filed what appears to be its first patent suit against Adobe (and a set of Polaris Ventures investors) in 2006 in the Eastern District of Texas. Infringement of the '745 patent was alleged, as was trade secret misappropriation and various other state law claims for relief. In August 2008, the court denied a motion to dismiss the Polaris defendants based on jurisdictional and venue grounds, which appears to have driven a settlement and dismissal with prejudice later that year.
Litigation picked back up with three 2011 complaints, again filed in the Eastern District of Texas: one targeting financial institutions, including Charles Schwab, E-Trade (later acquired by Morgan Stanley), and Merrill Lynch (later acquired by Bank of America); another targeting retailers, including e-Bay, Nordstrom, Overstock, Sears, Target, and Williams-Sonoma; and yet another, targeting high-tech companies, including Alphabet (Google, YouTube), Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms (Facebook), and Yahoo! (later acquired by Verizon). The financial institution wing of the campaign was transferred to the Southern District of New York and resulted most notably in a noninfringement ruling as to the '745 patent, prompting ultimate dismissal in late 2018. The retailer wing produced a 2015 jury verdict awarding Droplets $11M for infringement of all three asserted patents by Sears; $4M, by Overstock.
Meanwhile, the case against the high-tech defendants was transferred in July 2012 to the Northern District of California. Settlements ended all but the suit against Yahoo there by December 2012, with consolidated litigation proceeding with Droplets's likewise transferred claims against Nordstrom. In March 2022, a jury returned a $15M verdict for Droplets, for infringement of one (claim 1) of two claims (claim 5) from the '745 patent, by only one (Yahoo! Search Suggest) of five accused products considered (Search History, Mail, My Yahoo, and Maps). The jury rejected a claim to willfulness. The court awarded interest, bringing the total to around $28M, memorialized in a March 2023 judgment after largely denied posttrial motions and followed by a withdrawn appeal.
Along the way to this result, the court imposed lengthy stays, the '838 patent claims were canceled in a separate inter partes reexam, the court considered the scope of a license with RPX, and the court denied a motion for substitution by OATH (a Verizon subsidiary), which then required OATH to join the litigation by intervention. Also, Droplets appears to have been among the small minority of litigants to attempt full compliance with the Northern District of California's requirement that a certificate of interested parties be filed naming all "persons, associations of person, firms, partnerships, corporations (including parent corporations) or other entities (i) have a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or (ii) have a non-financial interest in that subject matter or in a party that could be substantially affected by the outcome of th[e] proceeding".
The November 2012 Droplets certificate identifies the following list of then-interested parties: Aleksandr Bulkin, Amy Bridges, Andreas Panayi, Andrew Parsons, Ben Smith, Bill Moon, Brian Rose, Bruce Katz, Carl-Thomas Epping, Carter Bales, Chris Di Vecchio, Chris Fallon, Curtis Ehrgott, Cynthia King-Vance, David Berberian Jr., David Berberian Sr., David Lee, Dr. Dietmar Meyersiek, Dr. Michael Muth, Dr. Richard Stierwalt, Elaine Gilde, Ellis Giles, Eric Mayer, Erinch Ozada, Frank Rose, Glyssie Berberian, Greg Blonder, James Nelson, Jason Robert, Jason Wright, Jeffrey Schuckman, John Edwin Berberian, Jonathan Durham, Joyce Heinzerling, Joyce Yune, Kerry Moynihan, Larry Ciscon, Louis Franco, Mark S. Palmer, Mat Baskin, Meridith Siviglia, Michael Sarullo, Michael Sloan, Patrick Dowd, Philip Brittan, Prof. Dr. Dieter Pommerening, Qi Cheng, Remington and Saumya Lee, Richard N. Berberian, Robert C. Reed, Robert Minkhorst, Rocky Emery, Rony Schlaepfer, Ross E. Traphagen, Roy M. Haney, Sean Harvey, Sherry Nalbone, Stephen Abbanat, Steve Morse, Thomas & Debra Woodard, Thomas MacIsaac, Tisno Onggara, Tracy Reddy, Udo Brandhorst, Vinodh Gunasekera, William S. Power IV, Catherine J. Moynihan IRA, Daniel D. Moynihan Trustee, Eastman Capital LTD, Grenadier LLC, Grove Street Capital LLC, Hanseatic Americas LDC, HVG Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH, IBT Ventures LLC, Kerry D. Moynihan IRA, Orbit Capital Corporation, Plough Penny Partners, The Samuel Lewis Green Trust, Thot Capital Group, LLC, and Track Information System GmbH.
Droplets was formed in Delaware in March 2000. It registered to conduct business in Texas, where it has maintained its charter, most recently (this year) identifying the above set of officers. Biddelman identifies himself on social media as having been the president of Hanseatic Corporation since March 1992; a director with Higher One Holdings, since July 2002. Ingerkauf indicates there that he has been the CFO of Droplets since March 2001.
The new Droplets cases have yet to be assigned to a judge. Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP filed them. 11/22, Eastern District of Texas.
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