Articles

2015 Annual Patent Dispute Report

Unified tracks all U.S. patent disputes, categorizing each by entity type and technology sector, and provides statistics, analytics, and regular reports on the state of patent disputes.  Unified is also the only independent entity that has challenged patent aggregators—entities that repeatedly purchase and seek to monetize patents. In that vein, we are happy to announce…

IPR Instituted on All Claims of NPE-Asserted Novocrypt Patent

On Tuesday, December 22, 2015, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted another petition filed by Unified Patents Inc. against a patent owned by Novocrypt LLC (Novocrypt) on two grounds and on all 13 claims. Unified filed the petition to protect cloud storage technologies from questionable NPE assertions. Novocrypt claims its patent covers, among…

Unified Files IPR Against Acacia-Owned Automotive Patent

On December 17, 2015, Unified Patents (“Unified”) petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of U.S. Patent 9,043,093, owned and asserted by American Vehicular Sciences, LLC (“AVS”), an Acacia Research Corporation (@Acacia_Research $ACTG) subsidiary. On September 1, 2015, AVS filed cases in the Central District of California, asserting one patent. In those cases AVS is represented by Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing…

NPE Activity: eRetail Litigation Report

Table 1a: NPEs filed over 600 new cases in the eRetail zone in 2015. NPE litigation in the eRetail zone has increased dramatically over the last several years. From January 1, 2012 to September 30, 2015, Unified studied patent infringement actions against the largest in-store and online retailers with particular emphasis on those cases filed by known or suspected NPEs. The study demonstrated that…

Unified files for IPR on Blitzsafe Patent in New Automotive Zone

On October 30, 2015, Unified Patents (“Unified”) petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of U.S. Patent 8,155,342, owned and asserted by Blitzsafe Texas LLC (“Blitzsafe”). On July 16, 2015 Blitzsafe filed five cases against major automotive companies in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting two similar, closely related patents. In those cases, Blitzsafe claims its…