Following an early September suit against Dell, Bell Northern Research, LLC has filed suits against CommScope (ARRIS; Ruckus Wireless) (6:21-cv-00941) and HP (6:21-cv-00939) in the Western District of Texas and TCL (2:21-cv-07323) in the Central District of California over a wide variety of devices (e.g., access points, computers, gateways, routers, smartphones, and TVs). At issue are the products' compliance with various 802.11 networking standards, as well as the incorporation of alarm systems, heat spreaders, and proximity sensors. Separately, TCL has filed a declaratory judgment (DJ) action (3:21-cv-01598) against Bell Northern in the Southern District of California, seeking a judgment of noninfringement (of the same patents and one additional patent) by the same devices.
Bell Northern has disclosed its corporate parents, Hilco, Inc. (d/b/a Hilco Global), Hilco IP Merchant Capital, LLC, and Hilco Patent Acquisition 56, as nonparties having an interest in the outcome of its litigation. The connections between Bell Northern and financial services conglomerate Hilco are covered more fully in last month's "Bell Northern Research Keeps Its Mobile Devices Campaign Alive with Suits Against Apple, Lenovo" on RPX Insight, which also provides additional details concerning the past conduct of this campaign. Huawei, Kyocera, LG Electronics, Samsung, Yulong Computer Communications (Coolpad Technologies), and ZTE have all seen cases filed against them, followed by the gradual dismissal of the patents-in-suit before an eventual settlement and dismissal with prejudice. Three other cases remain active in the campaign, one each against Apple, Dell, and Lenovo (Motorola Mobility); each defendant has yet to answer or file a response to its respective complaint.
The patents asserted against CommScope and HP are broadly directed to wireless communications (7,564,914; 8,416,862; RE48,629) and heat spreader assembly (6,858,930; 6,963,129). TCL is accused of infringing those same patents and another five patents broadly directed to wireless communications (6,941,156), mobile device alarm systems (6,696,941; 7,957,450), and a system for conserving battery based on the proximity of a user to a device (7,319,889; 8,204,554). In its DJ action, TCL seeks a judgment of noninfringement against those ten patents-in-suit, as well as another battery conservation patent (7,039,435).
In that same DJ action, TCL alleges that Bell Northern has contacted it on "no less than six occasions" since December 1, 2017, with the parties alleged to have held a meeting in September 2021 in which Bell Northern provided a term sheet for a license to the patents-in-suit.
In January 2018, three Hilco subsidiaries (Bell Northern Research, as well as Bell Semiconductor, LLC and Hilco Patent Acquisition 56) granted a security interest in over 3,700 patent assets, including the patents now in litigation, to unnamed "Secured Parties" through a document signed on behalf of those parties by Cortland Capital Market Services, a Chicago-based investment servicing company (and a subsidiary of global private equity firm Alter Domus). The vast majority of the patent assets covered by that security interest were passed to Bell Semiconductor from Broadcom through multiple assignments, dated December 8, 2017.
TCL's DJ action and Bell Northern's affirmative case against TCL were filed on the same day. The former has been assigned to District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo, while the latter has been assigned to District Judge Andre Birotte, Jr. Bell Northern's West Texas lawsuits against CommScope and HP have both been assigned to District Judge Alan D. Albright. 9/10, Commscope, HP, Western District of Texas; 9/13, TCL v. Bell Northern, Southern District of California; 9/13, Bell Northern v. TCL, Central District of California.
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