01.13.19

“Uniloc is a Lawsuit Factory”

Posted in Apple, Courtroom, Patents at 6:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Factory

Summary: Apple is a very secretive company, so it is hard to know what goes on with the patent troll Uniloc

THERE IS RISK that quality of patents granted by the USPTO will decrease because Trump appointed law firms to run the Office (law firms that had worked for him, so there’s an element of nepotism too). Courts aren’t changing though; having said that, patent trolls often rely on the accused not being able to afford going to court, hence a secret settlement over fake (bogus) patents.

Apple is a very opaque company, so it’s hard to know what’s going on in some of the lawsuits against it. The EFF’s post that’s cited a lot by patent people speaks of Uniloc’s lawsuit against Apple as follows:

At EFF, we review court dockets to monitor the conduct of the most active patent trolls. But when court records are redacted or sealed, it can be impossible for EFF and other members of the public to know what is going on. Today we filed a motion to intervene in Uniloc v. Apple seeking public access to key briefing about whether Uniloc should be able to bring the case at all.

Uniloc is one of the most active patent trolls in the world, and filed more than 170 lawsuits in 2018. It is the patent owner that sued Austin Meyer for offering his X-Plane flight simulator on app stores. That suit led to a documentary called The Patent Scam (available on Amazon Prime). Since then, Uniloc has been a big purchaser of patents, and various Uniloc entities have filed hundreds of patent suits.

In 2017, Uniloc filed a wave of patent litigation against Apple and other defendants. In some of those cases, Apple has moved to dismiss on the basis that Uniloc lacks standing. Apple’s motion to dismiss was heavily redacted, but it appears to relate to deals Uniloc has made with Fortress Investment Group LLC. Apple seems to be arguing that Uniloc and Fortress divided rights in the underlying patents in a way that means Uniloc entities no longer had a legal right to sue for infringement.

“Uniloc is a lawsuit factory,” said a reader to us back in November. “From today’s RPX Daily Litigation Alert,” he added:

Litigations

California Central

Max Blu Technologies, LLC v. AVIC UMEDISC (US), Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. ESPN, Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Hulu, LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Microsoft Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Microsoft Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Netflix, Inc.

Delaware

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Inventergy LBS, LLC v. Securus Technologies, Inc.

Symbology Innovations LLC v. Pilot Corporation of America

Symbology Innovations LLC v. Vital Farms, Inc.

XMTT, Inc. v. Intel Corporation

Delaware (After Hours)

XMTT, Inc. v. Intel Corporation.

New Jersey

MEDICURE INTERNATIONAL, INC. v. GLAND PHARMA LTD.

TELEBRANDS CORP. v. ALTAIR INSTRUMENTS, INC.

Texas Eastern

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC et al v. Google LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. AT&T Services, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Cardo Systems, Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Huawei Device USA, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA, INC. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Terrano, LLC

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Verizon Communications Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Hike Ltd. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Hike Ltd. et al

Texas Northern

Ring Protection LLC v. NEC Corporation of America

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Blackberry Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Blackberry Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Blackberry Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Blackberry Corporation

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. LG Electronics USA Inc et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. ZTE, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. ZTE, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. ZTE, Inc. et al

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. ZTE, Inc. et al

Texas Southern

Metuchen Pharmaceuticals LLC et al v. Empower Pharmaceuticals LLC et al

Ringers Technologies LLC v. Harmer

Texas Western

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple Inc.

Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple Inc.

That’s from one day in November. If Apple cares about society at large, it will reject this ‘NDA culture’ and tell the public what’s going on. Uniloc has already expanded to Europe and it’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away fast enough. █

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