NPE Litigation Targeting Financial Services Surged in Q1

A breakdown of NPE district court filing trends by market sector (comparing the number of defendants added in Q1 to the quarterly average for 2020) reveals a marked increase in litigation targeting certain industries in the first quarter. Specifically, NPE litigation focused on the Financial Services sector jumped by 111%, with filings also rising in sectors like Mobile Communications and Devices (by 28%) and Networking (by 18%).

Defendants Added to Litigation by NPEs, Percent Change from 2020 Quarterly Average to Q1 2021

That first-quarter wave of Financial Services litigation includes lawsuits from a variety of familiar NPEs—among them the prolific monetization firm IP Edge LLC, which began a mobile point-of-sale campaign in September 2020 through its affiliated NPE Kwality IP LLC, initially targeting online payment service providers. In February, fellow IP Edge NPE Xylon Licensing LLC rebooted the campaign with a fresh wave of litigation targeting financial institutions. Another monetization firm, Dynamic IP Deals, LLC (d/b/a DynaIP), launched its own Financial Services campaign in Q1 as well through subsidiary mCom IP, LLC, also hitting several financial institutions—here over their use of digital banking platforms, focusing in part on certain analytics and marketing features.

One more NPE that joined the fray in the first quarter was Caselas, LLC, one of several entities controlled by prolific inventor Raymond Anthony Joao, which in late January sued a group of banks and credit unions over the provision of financial payment cards. Additionally, inventor-controlled NPE Proxense, LLC launched a new mobile payments campaign in March, with allegations calling out biometric authentication features in particular. Mobile payments are also at issue in the latest round of lawsuits from inventor William Grecia, filed from January through March—his latest pivot in a long-running campaign that has also encompassed streaming services and cloud storage.

See RPX’s first-quarter review for more on patent litigation and marketplace trends. Further coverage of litigation hitting the Financial Services sector can also be found on RPX Insight.