Familiar Faces Formed a Raft of New NPEs During 1H 2021—Including a Prolific File-and-Settle Plaintiff

RPX has flagged public records reflecting a rash of NPE creation during the first half of 2021, including by the patent monetization and advisory firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC; Jonathan Szarzynski’s Endpoint IP LLC; monetization firms IPValuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) and Longhorn IP LLC; and David White/Strategic Intellectual Solutions LLC. If past practices are precedent, patent assignments to these recently formed NPEs are likely in the pipeline—followed by the launch of new litigation campaigns in the months ahead.

Notably, prolific patent plaintiff IP Edge LLC formed over a dozen new Texas NPEs during Q2 alone, suggesting that the firm may continue filing new litigation at its current pace through 2021.

IP Edge finished last year well atop the list of NPE plaintiffs, with nearly 550 defendants added across 58 of its campaigns. RPX data indicate that so far this year, the firm has launched roughly 14 new campaigns and added over 300 defendants to litigation.

Over the years, IP Edge has turned to various sources for its patents, including individual inventors, operating companies, other NPEs, and at least one university—and its pipeline appears chock full of assets still to litigate. Perhaps most notable among them is a large portfolio of assets—more than 700—picked up from Technicolor SA in July 2020. The second quarter of 2021 saw that portfolio’s first visible movement since it was acquired, with IP Edge’s Magnolia Licensing LLC (the primary vehicle through which IP Edge appears to have completed that acquisition) transferring former Technicolor patents to at least three IP Edge NPEs: Bataan Licensing LLC, Sunflower Licensing LLC, and Triumph IP LLC. As detailed further here, Bataan Licensing and Triumph IP have already launched litigation campaigns asserting some of those assets.

IP Edge has never presented a case to a jury, with litigation usually ending at the pleadings stage, or just after. However, last year it filed an ITC complaint, a first for the firm, through controlled plaintiff Q3 Networking LLC, against respondents CommScope, HP Enterprise, and NETGEAR, arguing the presence of a domestic industry based on the US activities of the original source of the patents asserted, Siemens. That investigation has since advanced through its evidentiary hearing, held before Administrative Law Judge David P. Shaw from late July through early August 2021.

See RPX’s second-quarter review for more on shifting NPE strategies, litigation finance, and other trends impacting patent litigation and the patent marketplace.