Patent Filings Roundup: IP Edge Files Another 50, Comprising 13% of all District Court Litigation; Hawk Hit with Declaratory Judgment For Asserting Already-Invalid Patent

It was another banner week in district court complaints, led primarily by a deluge of new IP Edge complaints—49 in all, by my count—including newer subsidiaries (like Wiesblatt Licensing or Hickory IP) and old mainstays like Moxchange and Tunnel IP (over a dozen entities in total).

At this point in 2021, IP Edge has filed at least 519 known suits via non-practicing entity (NPE) vehicles (more by various counts); it is by far the highest aggregate filer of all time, and of this year. To date, there have been 4,001 patent complaints filed (per Unified’s portal, based on publicly available PACER docket data); IP Edge thus has again filed upwards of 10% (so far, 13+%) of all U.S. patent litigation in 2021, up from last year. It also, for the first time, went to trial on one of its many patent assertions, though overwhelmingly vast majority of them remain file-and-settle affairs.

The heavy district court action is contrasted with this week’s average-rate 29 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) filings (two post grant reviews [PGRs] and 27 inter partes reviews [IPRs]). Many of the IPRs filed were in response to big-ticket Magnetar Capital-funded campaigns, of which there are now at least seven major campaigns in progress from the Irish entities (controlled and organized under the aegis of Atlantic IP).  This, paired with another 80 or so terminations this week (many IP Edge cases), demonstrates that the base of file-and-settle suits is still on pace to set U.S. records and continues unabated in 2021.

Recent Magnetar Capital-funded Campaign Leads to Early IPRs: One of the most recent Magentar Capital-funded big-ticket campaigns, Scramoge Tech. Ltd., has resulted in at least four IPRs filed by defendant Apple there. Scramoge alleges their portfolio, much of which originated with LG, is directed to the ersatz-open wireless charging Qi standard.

Small Companies Hit Back at Hawk: Hawk Technology Systems (which has to date sued upwards of 200 small local businesses, nonprofits, and government entities, including multiple Goodwill franchises, local school and municipal districts, local car dealerships, and (the University of Michigan fan in me is OK with this) the City of Lansing, Michigan, is the subject of another declaratory judgment action, this time by Missouri-based security company Interface Security Systems. They allege that, despite one of the two patents (same small family and subject matter) asserted against them being declared invalid under 101 by a district court judge, Hawk has continued to send demand letters and claim charts to their various customers. The patents, U.S. 10,499,091 and 10,945,004, are ostensibly directed to local-to-business security systems. It is worth noting that Hawk has continued to sue small companies unabated since early 2012 on the same small portfolio of first one, and now three, patents.

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