Unified Patents became well known for its work within the boundaries of the US, with focus on Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs). Unified Patents was also involved in the response to an attack by a patent troll against GNOME. Unified Patents is one of those very few organisations we can support. It serves to improve patent quality and decrease frivolous litigation.
Unified believes patent quality is not just a U.S. issue but an international one. For those reasons, on July 17, 2020, Unified filed opposition proceedings against recently issued EP 2 347 591 B1, owned by Velos Media, LLC. The ‘591 patent is generally related to decoding data using macroblocks. This filing is a part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.
In mid-July, Velos announced Technicolor as their first public HEVC patent licensee. However, in June, Technicolor declared bankruptcy in the U.S. because of higher than expected costs and lower revenue.
The ‘591 patent is also part of a family that Unified challenged and the PTAB instituted review on all claims as likely unpatentable, IPR2019-00757. This family is one of Velos’ largest and originally owned by Qualcomm.