In late March, the USPTO made public five patent assignments from various Pendrell Corporation subsidiaries to Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. This transaction appears to be the one that Pendrell disclosed in a February SEC filing—a divestiture it described as comprising "patents related to cellular and digital wireless devices and infrastructure" from multiple sources, including Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), IBM, and Philips. Collectively, the transfers assigned over 445 assets to Uniloc, including patents now being asserted by the NPE in seven recently initiated litigation campaigns.
The five patent assignments between Pendrell and Uniloc were each executed on January 31, recorded on February 14, and posted by the USPTO on March 27. Uniloc Luxembourg, with Uniloc USA, Inc. (collectively, Uniloc), has filed more than 20 cases in the past six weeks, suing Apple, Amazon, Huawei, LG Electronics (LGE), Logitech, and Samsung over patents received in the Pendrell transaction.
In February, Uniloc kicked off a campaign targeting mobile devices mobile devices with HSPA/HSPA+ connectivity (first hitting Apple and Samsung, later adding Huawei and LGE as defendants); the asserted patent originated with Philips and generally concerns a network having logic and transport channels.
Also in February, Uniloc begun a campaign focused on devices implementing 3G and LTE standards (again suing Apple and Samsung first, then Huawei and LGE the following month); the patent-in-campaign originated with Philips and generally relates to radio communications.
In a third campaign initiated in February, Uniloc has asserted two former Philips patents against Apple, Huawei, LGE, and Logitech. The patents generally relate to delivering data through "beacon devices"; infringement allegations focus on devices that support Bluetooth Low Energy version 4.0 or above (e.g., certain smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables).
In yet a fourth campaign begun in February, Uniloc has accused Apple, Huawei, LGE, and Samsung of infringing a former Philips patent through provision of devices that use Bluetooth version 3.0 + HS and above (e.g., certain smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables).
In its fifth and final campaign launched in February, Uniloc has sued Apple over two direct communications patents. The accused products are devices that use the Apple Push Notification service, including certain models of the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Watch, and iPod.
Uniloc also kicked off two new litigation campaigns in March, this time targeting Amazon. In the first campaign, Uniloc asserts a patent generally related to "borrowing" media files, accusing Amazon's Kindle e-readers and web service (and related servers) of infringement. The second campaign focuses on the Kindle platform, books, and app, which allegedly infringe a patent broadly concerning distributing "digital assets" across a network.
Uniloc Luxembourg (typically appearing as a plaintiff as patent owner) and Uniloc USA (typically appearing as a plaintiff as exclusive licensee) are subsidiaries of Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, an Australian operating company turned NPE. Uniloc has filed hundreds of infringement cases across over 25 litigation campaigns, shifting in 2017 to the assertion of patents developed by other companies and received through assignment, rather than of homegrown patents. The patents that Uniloc asserted last year were developed by HP (or 3COM, acquired by HP before the company split into the current HP Inc. and HP Enterprise), Fullpower Technologies, Paragon Solutions, or IBM.
Pendrell is a publicly traded NPE that took steps last year to have its stock delisted from the NASDAQ exchange. In a 10-K filed in February (and reported by RPX that same month), Pendrell disclosed that it had divested the "majority" of its "Pendragon portfolio" and was "actively working to divest the remainder of the portfolio". The NPE also repeated its recent public representations that it has "explored and continue[s] to explore investment opportunities that are not premised on the value of IP", but will nevertheless "continue to dedicate effort and resources to generate revenue from [its] existing IP assets".
Read more about Pendrell and Uniloc on RPX Insight.
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