As RPX has previously reported, IPInvestments Group LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group) became the top NPE recipient of patents divested from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) after a group of entities associated with the Georgia monetization firm picked up thousands of those assets late last year. Another such entity has now filed its first lawsuit, Kioba Processing LLC hitting American Express (3:20-cv-01781) over the provision of various network-based finance products and services provided by it, including AMEX Pay, InAuth and Accertify, Freeze Your Card, Rewards Portal, and SafeKey. The case was filed in the Northern District of Texas, where the plaintiff disclosed nonparties having an interest in the outcome of the litigation.
Those nonparties include Brainbox Innovations, LLC, one of several IPinvestments Group affiliates recently (in October 2019) formed in Georgia, apparently to facilitate the acquisition and assertion of the former IV assets; and Bragalone Conroy PC and Griffin Law PLLC, both of which have made an appearance on behalf of the plaintiff in connection with the new complaint.
IPinvestments Group itself was founded in Georgia in September 2005 by president and CEO Michael McLaughlin, an industry veteran with a finance background who came to IPinvestments Group after earlier positions with monetization/licensing firms InteCap (1998 through 2003) and IPAC (2003 through 2005, subsequently renamed Scenera Research LLC). IPinvestments Group identifies Ryan E. Strong as its COO and cofounder; Strong also reports training in finance and accounting, with past positions with InteCap and IPAC. The firm's CTO is Bill Hartselle, a Georgia lawyer with past licensing and patent positions with ANTEC (now ARRIS) and Bell South.
IPinvestments Group has been acquiring and litigating patents from IV over the past couple of years, including through FireNet Technologies, LLC, SynchView Technologies, LLC, Universal Transdata, LLC, and Visible Connections, LLC, among others. The relationship appears to have deepened last year, with the large divestiture of assets to Hanger Solutions, LLC and other entities associated with IPinvestments Group, including CDN Innovations, LLC, which has launched a wireless communications campaign over patents received; CommWorks Solutions, LLC, a networking campaign; DataCloud Technologies, LLC, a cloud computing campaign; and DigiMedia Tech, LLC, a digital camera campaign.
Kioba Processing was formed around the same time and under similar circumstances as these other entities, receiving four of the five patents now asserted (6,332,134; 6,917,902; 6,931,382; 7,110,792) directly from an IV affiliate as part of four transfers totaling over 100 assets in November 2019 and receiving the fifth (7,136,841) from Hanger Solutions (which had picked it up from IV) in early June 2020, perhaps in preparation to assert in litigation. The '841 patent generally relates to authenticating network-based transactions through "authorization forms" and customer "signature phrases". AMEX is accused of infringement through the provision of the American Express SafeKey solution, with features for authentication and fraud prevention at issue.
The original development work for the '841 patent (as well as for its family member (6,853,987)) was conducted by David P. Cook, the founder of Blockbuster Video, while with Zix Corporation (f/k/a Zixit Corporation), a provider of email security services. Cook formed Zix (originally as Amtech) in 1988, after founding other enterprises in the oil, video entertainment, and online music industries. The patents issued in February 2005 and November 2006, respectively, with Cook assigning the first application to Zix (as Zixit) in 1999. The family appears to have bounced between Cook and Zix until Cook assigned them to an IV affiliate in April 2008. The patents then became part of the thousands of assets transferred by a different IV affiliate to Hanger Solutions in December 2019.
The '134 patent broadly concerns a secure financial transaction system for allowing cardholders to make purchases from merchants. It issued to sole named inventor Chuck Foster in December 2001, with an assignment to an IV affiliate in October 2005. AMEX is accused of infringement of the '134 patent through the provision of its Membership Rewards Portal.
Issuing to Vigilos (a "physical security and operations" company based in Seattle, Washington) in July 2005, the '902 patent generally relates to processing "monitoring device data characteristic of an individual" to generate actions. It, together with nearly a dozen other assets, moved to IV in December 2007. AMEX is accused of infringement through the provision of the InAuth and Accertify fraud prevention platforms.
The '382 patent generally relates to authorizing network-based transactions through a registered and trusted third party, with AMEX accused of infringement through the provision of the Freeze Your Card service, with features for locking and unlocking the service at issue in Kioba Processing's new complaint. It issued in August 2005 to CDCK, naming Dominic P. and Maria T. Laage as its inventors and moving to IV in July 2007.
Generally related to authenticating a "smartcard" through a mobile device before allowing the smartcard to be used for a transaction, the '792 patent issued to sole named inventor Einar Rosenberg ("Board Member and Founding Partner" of Narian Technologies, "bring[ing] forth the most disruptive Mobile Retail Technology Ever") in September 2006. Narian passed the patent, along with several others, to an IV affiliate in November 2012. AMEX is accused of infringement through the provision of the AMEX Pay app.
The flow of patent assets out of IV to IPinvestments Group entities is part of a larger trend, developing over the past several years and covered in more depth in RPX's members-only report on the accelerating divestiture and subsequent assertion of patents held by IV, available here. 7/6, Northern District of Texas.
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