Non-Practicing Entities

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Last week, the Virginia General Assembly joined the state legislatures of Oregon and Vermont by approving legislation designed to protect entities doing business in Virginia from bad faith assertions of patent infringement.  While Virginia lawmakers tout the bill as targeting non-practicing entities (characterized by some as “patent trolls”), the text of the bill appears to…

Yesterday, in two separate precedential decisions on mandamus, the Federal Circuit refused to overturn the district courts’ decisions not to transfer patent assertion entity cases to the defendants’ home forum: In re Apple, Misc. 13-156 (mandamus from E.D. Tex.) and In re Barnes Noble, Misc. 13-162 (mandamus from W.D. Tenn.).  Both mandamus orders were…

Last week the U.S. International Trade Commission issued the public version  of its decision last December that no valid claim of Interdigital’s 3G patents was infringed by Huawei, Nokia or ZTE and reserving ruling on other issues, such as on RAND obligations (see our Dec. 23,2013 post).  The ITC also gave its Federal Register…

Yesterday Cisco and Innovatio filed an Agreed Motion to Dismiss with Prejudice based on settlement of their litigation involving Innovatio WiFi standard essential patents.  Cisco’s Mark Chandler issued a statement indicating that the case settled for $2.7 million, or about 3.2 cents for 85 million devices even though Judge Holderman ruled that a RAND royalty…

On Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, Cisco filed an answer-counterclaim in D. Del. against Rockstar in response to the complaint filed against Cisco by Rockstar’s subsidiary Bockstar (see our Jan. 2, 2014 post).  Cisco’s counterclaim includes a declaratory judgment action based on Rockstar’s assertion of patents against cable operators that purchase Cisco equipment, including cable…

Yesterday Arris filed a declaratory judgment action in D. Del. against Rockstar based on Rockstar asserting alleged standard essential patents (SEPs) against cable operators who purchased Arris equipment (recall our Jan. 21, 2014 post about Rockstar lawsuits with cable operators).  Among other things, Arris seeks a declaration of the essentiality of Rockstar patents, what standard…

Last week, District of Nebraska judge Joseph F. Bataillon entered an order preliminarily enjoining the Nebraska Attorney General (AG) from enforcing a cease and desist order that would prevent or impede the law firm of Farney Daniels from representing patent assertion entity MPHJ Technology Investments, LLC (MPHJ) to license or litigate MPHJ’s U.S. patents with…

Last Friday, several cable operators filed a Complaint against Rockstar in D. Del. alleging that Rockstar’s assertion against them of patents breached obligations owed to various standard setting organizations (“SSOs”) based on prior owner Nortel’s commitment to license patents on RAND, FRAND or royalty-free terms.  Our Jan. 2 and Nov. 1 posts discussed Rockstar’s purchase…

Since Judge Holderman’s September 27, 2013 order setting a RAND rate in the sprawling Innovatio WiFi litigation (see our October 3 post), two of the five major device manufacturers involved in the case have settled-out.  Motorola settled with Innovatio after a November 22nd settlement conference and was dismissed on December 17th.  Less than a…

Recall that Rockstar started asserting patents it acquired from Nortel by filing a lawsuit in E.D. Tex. on Halloween against Google and certain Android handset manufacturers (see our Nov. post that also summarizes Rockstar’s acquisition of Nortel’s patents).  On Christmas Eve, Google responded by filing a Complaint in N.D. Cal. seeking a declaratory judgment…