Per publicly available USPTO records, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) has divested a portfolio of patents to Texas monetization firm Empire IP LLC in each of 2020 (to Fleet Connect Solutions LLC), 2022 (to IoT Innovations LLC), and 2024 (to Integral Wireless Technologies LLC). Integral Wireless has now joined the other two in litigating its received assets, accusing D-Link (2:25-cv-00388) of infringing eight patents in a new Eastern District of Texas complaint. IV appears to have retained an interest in the monetization of these three portfolios.
As RPXreported at the time, on October 15, 2024, IV—through Intellectual Ventures 194 LLC (IVA 194) and Intellectual Ventures 199 LLC (IVA 199)—divested a total of 60 US patent assets to Integral Wireless, including the patents that the recipient now asserts against D-Link (7,627,805; 7,707,213; 7,707,214; 7,953,411; 8,031,654; 8,073,866; 8,156,360; 10,033,716). The accused products are placed into categories: the D-Link server system, D-Link 5G compatible devices, 802.11n compatible devices, HEVC compatible devices, and Bluetooth compatible devices, with long lists provided for each of the last four.
The original development work for the patents within Integral Wireless's portfolio was conducted at disparate places, including BAE Systems, Mercedes-Benz, Nokia, STMicro, Synaptics, and ZTE. Public records indicate that IV—again, through IVA 194 and IVA 199—retains an interest in any proceeds from the monetization of this transacted portfolio. Logically, should Integral Wireless file suit against a future defendant in a district court that requires the filing of a certificate of interested parties, it would disclose IV's ongoing stake in Integral's monetization efforts.
Note, however, that Fleet Connect and IoT Innovations have established a pattern of, at best, selectively making such disclosures. For coverage, see "Not One Person Is Apparently Interested, Financially or Otherwise, in the Outcome of Fleet Connect's Cases" (December 2024); "Empire IP Plaintiff Amends Prior Certifications to Identify Previously Undisclosed Interested Nonparties" (January 2025); and "Another Empire IP Plaintiff Files a 'None' Certification in Campaign over Patents Received from IV" (January 2025).
In its campaign, Empire IP's IoT Innovations filed a November 2024 complaint against Lutron Electronics that has already turned acrimonious. There, in the Central District of California, IoT Innovations filed the "None" certificate of interested parties mentioned in the title above, despite IV's apparent ongoing interest. Lutron responded to the complaint with a motion to dismiss for, among other things, patent ineligibility under Alice. IoT Innovations amended its complaint in response, prompting a second motion to dismiss on substantially the same grounds, and IoT Innovations filed a second complaint against Lutron Electronics, targeting the same set of accused products but with a different seven patents, this time in the Southern District of Florida.
A March 2025 joint case management statement in California outlines the parties' perspectives.
This case is just one of at least 25 cases that Plaintiff filed in federal courts around the country. Plaintiff has no products, no sales, and no actual business. It is a serial litigant whose sole business practice is acquiring and asserting large numbers of expired patents or near-expired patents against companies, suing without any discussion, and using litigation costs to drive real companies to pay Plaintiff. To cite just one example, Plaintiff filed four lawsuits asserting infringement of a total of 24 patents against Savant.
The present eight-patent case is not the only or even the latest case that Plaintiff has filed against Lutron: just last week, after Lutron moved to dismiss the claims here, IoT Innovations filed a separate, seven-patent case against Lutron in the Southern District of Florida. That case intones the same boilerplate allegations that it repeats in all of its cases. Although the seven patents asserted against Lutron there are different from the patents in this case, Plaintiff is suing on the same Lutron Accused Products as here, and the case reflects Plaintiff's strategy of misusing the federal courts and the threat of litigation costs to induce operating companies to settle.
(Citations omitted, emphasis added.) IoT Innovations responded, in part, with the following setup:
Based on its section of this Joint Case Management Statement, it appears that Lutron intends to use this Statement as a vehicle to smear Plaintiff IoT Innovations and to make baseless allegations about the case. For that reason, IoT Innovations is compelled to make a few additional comments.
First, the evidence in this case will show that Defendant infringes a myriad of patents owned by IoT Innovations. The Asserted Patents were duly issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to some of the most innovative companies in the world, including AT&T and Nokia. In short, they represent advancements in the art from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Lutron has decided to use these patents without a license and without regard for who developed the technologies. While it is true that many companies infringe these patented technologies, that should not be a surprise given the lineage of the patents and their fundamental application to the "internet of things."
A scheduling conference has been set in California for July 31, 2025, while Lutron has sought an extension of the deadline to respond to the Florida complaint, which was filed on March 12, 2025.
Integral Wireless was created in Texas on September 30, 2024. Daniel Mitry and Timothy Salmon, New York lawyers and Empire IP's founders, are its managing members. Plaintiffs tied to Empire IP have initiated over 50 litigation campaigns since late 2011. Rozier Hardt McDonough, PLLC represents Integral Wireless; the case has yet to be assigned to a judge. 4/11, Eastern District of Texas.
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