Scale Video Coding LLC, an Equitable IP Corporation plaintiff, first sued Cisco in September 2023. Eastern District of Texas Judge Sean D. Jordan has since received opposed motions to amend infringement contentions (from Scale Video) and invalidity contentions (from Cisco). In what appears to be a belt-and-suspenders second complaint (4:25-cv-00095), Scale Video now accuses Cisco of infringing the same patent—generally related to a "video router" that transmits a certain "layered video data stream"—through the provision of additional products and services that implement the "scalable video coding features" of the AV1 coding format and H.264 video coding standard, including the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), Cisco Webex-series products, and Cisco Meeting Server version 3.9 and higher, as well as related hardware and software products.
In its earlier complaint, Scale Video targeted the provision of products—including the Cisco Meeting Server, Web App, and Meeting Management platforms—that are compliant with the H.264 video compression standard and related scalable video coding (SVC) technology. The sole patent-in-suit (11,019,372) belongs to a family of eight and issued in May 2021 with an estimated priority date in January 2005. The patent's sole named inventor (Erik Van Zjist, now reporting a position as a self-employed "Embedded Engineer") assigned the family to Internet Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in September 2007, at a time when he reports on social media having been the founder and CTO of Layerstream Technologies in Palo Alto, California ("offer[ing] a unique content distribution platform that is targeted at streaming live content over shared IP networks, such as the Internet, where throughput and latency constantly vary").
Nearly five years later, IBC transferred the family to Blitz Stream Video LLC, an NPE formed in Texas in September 2011 that has previously listed its members as Mark Born (identifying himself as having served as principal with Outlander Capital in Dallas, Texas since June 2020, with past positions listed with McKool Smith, The Ware Firm, and Marconi Group); Eric Tautfest (currently general counsel for United Biomedical, Inc. after stints with various law firms, including McKool Smith and The Ware Firm, and PanOptis Patent Management, LLC, a subsidiary of NPE PanOptis Holdings, LLC); and Leslie D. ("Les") Ware (PanOptis's founder). Current Texas records list Ware as the entity's sole member and director.
In March 2020, Blitz Stream Video moved the family along to Blitz Data Systems LLC, an NPE formed in Delaware a day earlier, which then transferred the patents to the current plaintiff, Scale Video Coding, itself a Delaware entity, formed on May 14, 2020. Equitable IP's John T. Meli Jr. signed for both entities on that last assignment, dated October 6, 2021. In corporate disclosures, the plaintiff identifies Equitable IP as its corporate parent and as the only nonparty having an interest in the outcome of the litigation.
Meli, the former patent counsel for Rembrandt IP Management, LLC, formed Equitable IP in Nevada in 2015. Other individuals have been associated with Equitable IP over the years, but Meli has signed for Equitable IP entities in more recent assignments, suggesting a return to tighter control. To date, all prior cases in Scale Video Coding's litigation campaign have been dismissed—with prejudice as to Brightcove, Mitel, NTT, and V-Cube, and without prejudice as to KDDI and Zoom—each at the early pleading stages.
The motions to amend the parties' contentions are briefed through surreplies; Judge Jordan has to rule. He also has before him a Cisco motion for judgment on the pleadings that challenges the claims of the '372 patent under Alice, as patent-ineligibly drawn to the abstract idea of "prioritizing information based on bandwidth". The court held a claim construction hearing last October; an order has yet to issue.
Devlin Law Firm LLC filed both complaints against Cisco for Scale Video. 1/31, Eastern District of Texas.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
