$2,000 awarded for Jeffrey M. Gross entity Lightning Fitness sensor patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ekta Aswal, Dinesh Swami, Ramesh Varadharaj, and S.P. Rahupathy, who split a $2,000 award for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 9,818,285, owned by Lightning Fitness Systems, LLC, an NPE and Jeffrey M. Gross entity. The ‘285 patent relates to methods and apparatuses for facilitating learning and multitasking through movement. It encompasses devices that collect sensory input such as audio, visual, and tactile information related to a user's actions and provide feedback. The patent has been asserted against Precor Incorporated.

We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.

WINNING SUBMISSION

$2,000 awarded for Factor 2 Multimedia authentication patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Yasodha Madhaiyan, Mani Manikandan, and Dinesh Swami, who split a $2,000 award for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 10,083,285, owned by Factor 2 Multimedia Systems, LLC, an NPE. The ‘285 patent generally relates to a direct authentication system and method, more particularly, to a new two-factor authentication method used by a business to authenticate its customers' identity utilizing trusted-authenticators. The patent has been asserted against ByteDance (TikTok) and Snap Inc.

We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.

WINNING SUBMISSION

$1,000 awarded for S3G Technologies software modifying patent prior art

Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Dinesh Swami, who was awarded $1,000 for his prior art submission on U.S. Patent 8,572,571, owned by S3G Technology LLC, an NPE. The ‘571 patent relates to a computerized system for efficiently modifying remote software, focusing on adapting and customizing a computer transaction dialogue module. It had been asserted in over 55 cases against many including Party City, Hibbett Retail, Five Below, The Gap, Foot Locker, Advance Auto Parts, Vitamin Shoppe, Cinemark, AutoZone, Boot Barn, Designer Brands, and others.

We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.

WINNING SUBMISSION

Velos/Avanci video codec patent found invalid

On January 4, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,390,013, owned by Velos Media, an NPE. The '013 patent generally relates to encoding syntax elements that indicate tile information into a slice header. Velos Media patents have been identified as part of the Avanci Video patent pool, and Avanci asserts its pool covers AV1, H.265 (HEVC), H.266 (VVC), MPEG-DASH, and VP9 technologies.

Unified was represented by in-house counsel Jessica L.A. Marks and Michelle Aspen.

To view the reexamination request, visit Unified’s Portal: https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015239.

$2,000 for Digimedia Tech TV programming patent prior art

Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,065,778, owned and asserted by Digimedia Tech LLC, an NPE. The ‘778 patent relates to utilizing personalized video recorders and other similar types of devices to distribute television programming. It has been asserted against WideOpenWest Finance and Midcontinent Communications.

The contest will expire on July 6, 2024. Please visit PATROLL for more information and to submit an entry for this contest.