Casio (1:21-cv-06053), Panasonic (1:21-cv-01538), Sharp NEC Display Solutions (1:21-cv-01539), and ViewSonic (1:21-cv-01540) have been sued in new litigation targeting color balance management in certain projectors. The IP Edge LLC plaintiff, Hickory IP LLC, asserts in the campaign a single patent generally related to a particular light-emitting diode (LED). The campaign appears to be the first to arise from a portfolio that the Texas monetization firm recently picked up from Beijing Metis Technology Services Center (BMTSC).
The asserted patent (7,476,016) issued in 2009 to Seiko Instruments (which was merged into Seiko Holdings around that timeframe). Comprising a family of one, the '016 patent has an estimated priority date in June 2005. In a set of assignments executed in September 2015, Seiko Instruments transferred to BMTSC roughly 50 US patents, 42 of which BMTSC just assigned, on September 2, 2021, to Dawncrest IP LLC, a Texas entity associated with IP Edge. The portfolio broadly concerns LEDs, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and other display-related technologies, its departure leaving BMTSC holding around ten US patents, at least according to currently available USPTO records.
On October 25, Dawncrest IP moved the '016 patent to Hickory IP, an entity that IP Edge created in Texas five days earlier. The past 12 months have seen IP Edge—the top NPE filer of patent litigation by volume over the past several years—diversify its patent holdings through acquisitions from various sources: operating companies, individual inventors, universities, and other NPEs. It has formed dozens of entities to assert them, 18 of them last quarter alone, with several subsequently launching new campaigns over patents received from Empire Technology Development LLC; France Brevets SAS; IP Bridge, Inc.; Monterey Research, LLC; or Technicolor, as well as, now, BMTSC.
For a broader look at IP Edge, both its historical filing and its more recent moves, see "IP Edge Keeps Up the Pace, Goes to Trial in Q3" (October 2021). 10/28, Panasonic, Sharp NEC Display Solutions, ViewSonic, District of Delaware; 10/29, Casio, Eastern District of New York.
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