Patent Risk Digest

March 2017

A monthly update on market activity, legal developments, and policy related to patent litigation
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Retail, Other Sectors Plagued by Suits over Shipping

Retailers, transit companies, and providers of logistics software continue to face an onslaught of litigation related to product tracking and shipping. The suits mostly accuse companies of infringing patents involving GPS and other technologies common to vehicle- and package tracking. But some also allege infringement of patents related to email and providing links to package- or delivery truck status. Litigation campaigns of this kind have been running for years, but have picked up steam since 2015—racking up many hundreds of defendants.

The latest suits came in February from Orthosie Systems, LLC, which targeted technology and fleet-tracking companies in its third wave of litigation in recent months. This campaign has been ongoing since October 2015, accusing dozens of companies of infringing patents related to methods of fleet-tracking, vehicle location systems, and vehicle security. Other campaigns are more massive. Electronic Communication Technologies LLC (f/k/a Eclipse IP, LLC) sued nearly two-dozen online retailers in September and December 2016 in a campaign launched in May 2011 and has since racked up nearly 200 defendants. The suits allege infringement of patents related to tracking shipments online and notifying recipients of their progress. The most recent complaints allege infringement through the order and shipping confirmation features on the defendants’ respective websites. A campaign by one of the most active patent infringement plaintiffs in the past couple years, Shipping & Transit, LLC has sued some 200 companies just since April 2015. Other campaigns by plaintiffs such as Venus Locations LLC and Virtual Fleet Management, LLC have brought similar suits against fleet-tracking, technology, and even automotive and networking companies.

Companies Sued for Using SMS Texts and Email? It Happens.

Using SMS (short message service) or email for direct marketing or to communicate with customers or shipping vendors could land your business in a patent infringement suit. The latest litigation campaigns targeted global banks, with suits last month alleging infringement of patents related to technology used in their mobile banking services. With cases such as these, the plaintiffs may be testing the potential for more widespread campaigns against smaller and medium-sized banks.

First-Class Monitoring, LLC, an affiliate of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, began a campaign last October with a case against a fleet-tracking technology solutions company. Its latest complaints against the banks, in February, assert the same patent—generally related to the digital transmission of information using the SMS portion of a personal communications system network.

First-Class Monitoring was formed in Texas just last year. Its affiliate, Monument Patent Holdings, is connected with Dominion Harbor Group, LLC—which has launched, through various affiliates, over a dozen litigation campaigns since early 2014.

Plaintiff Targets Use of Point-of-Sale Technology

In campaigns that have been running for years, retailers and providers of point of sale (POS) terminals and card readers continue to be targeted in patent infringement litigation. Digital Verification Systems, LLC, one of Leigh M. Rothschild’s many litigating plaintiffs, filed new suits in February against POS system providers and card-reader products. The asserted patent generally relates to technology for “embedding a unique identifier in a document.” The same plaintiff sued a group of other companies over the same technology in May and September 2016.

Health and Fitness Tech: A Patent Litigation Magnet

Widespread adoption of new technologies used in the “health tech” industry has fueled an explosion of new fitness gear and apps on the market—creating ample fodder for opportunistic plaintiffs to bring patent infringement suits. SportBrain Holdings LLC continues to lead the charge with a spate of new litigation filed in February, adding to the dozens of defendants it has already sued just in the past year. Targeted companies are manufacturers, sellers, and users of technology employed in wearable computing devices—items such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and their associated apps and devices.

In August 2016, we reported on SportBrain’s litigation campaigns as well as others—by Presqriber, My Health Inc., St. Luke Technologies LLC, Uniloc USA Inc., and Blackbird Tech LLC—similarly suing over a wide range of products and services in this space, reaching beyond the general health and fitness sector and into the areas of medical record-keeping and medical devices. Just some developments since then have included:

  • Blackbird Tech continued to position itself for more litigation, acquiring another two patents in September 2016 related to a video game that includes user-determined location information—and yet two more in October, one generally related to data transfer and delivery and the other concerning rechargeable battery accessories.
  • Suits brought by North Star Innovations Inc. and Smart Wearable Technologies Inc. in late 2016 against technology companies over products that use semiconductor memory devices. Smart Wearable alleges infringement through the provision of fitness trackers.
  • On January 6, we saw the reassignment of a medical device patent from Sybernav Development LLC to IP Edge affiliate Drogo IP LLC. Less than a week later, Drogo asserted the patent in lawsuits accusing companies of infringement for providing “capsule endoscopes”—pill-sized diagnostic devices containing cameras that are used to photograph the gastrointestinal tract.
  • Word to Info, Inc. in January sued a company over its products and services for the medical community utilizing the company’s ontology platform, a technology that uses natural language processing to break down text with medical terminology into discrete concepts and data that computers can more easily process.

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