E-Commerce and Software Saw the Most NPE Litigation in Q2

The top market sector for NPE litigation in Q2 2022 was E-Commerce and Software, accounting for 28% of new defendants added to patent litigation campaigns. Consumer Electronics and PCs saw the second highest amount of NPE litigation in the second quarter, followed by Networking, Media Content and Distribution, and Semiconductors.

NPE activity hitting the E-Commerce and Software sector in Q2 included litigation from several well-known plaintiffs as well as smaller entities and individual inventors.

Among those campaigns were several hitting web content and analytics technologies. In April, Acacia Research Corporation subsidiary R2 Solutions LLC filed a new round of suits targeting search query processing and analytics features from web platforms and mobile apps, asserting patents from the large former Yahoo portfolio that Acacia acquired in 2019 through Excalibur IP, LLC. Another familiar player targeting website search functionality was monetization firm IP Edge LLC, via controlled plaintiff Ridgeview IP LLC, which in late April kicked off a campaign against the purveyors of several online learning and research websites offering such features.

Additional web-related campaigns that saw new litigation in Q2 included two related to user interface features. In late May, Lexos Media IP, LLC revived its campaign against e-commerce websites with image zoom features, while websites with hierarchical/nested menus were at issue in the latest batch of litigation filed in May by coplaintiffs Caddo Systems, Inc. (the inventor-controlled owner of the asserted patents) and 511 Technologies, Inc. (their exclusive licensee), followed weeks later by an infringement verdict in an earlier lawsuit from that campaign.

Other NPEs hitting this sector in Q2 focused on location-based technologies and related products. Those plaintiffs included monetization firm Equitable IP Corporation, which through subsidiary Route Guidance Systems LLC filed a new wave of suits in May targeting a range of products with GPS navigation features. Another familiar plaintiff, inventor-controlled Traxcell Technologies, LLC, focused more on the use of location services in delivery and rental services in a set of late-June complaints. Some of those same ridesharing defendants were also hit by new plaintiff SurgeTech, LLC, which launched a campaign hitting one of those same ridesharing defendants over features allowing surge pricing—apparently with outside backing.

Products related to online communications and social media were at issue in other NPE litigation hitting the E-Commerce and Software sector in Q2—including the email management campaign waged by inventor Peter Henrik Pedersen and the dating app/service campaign from inventor-controlled plaintiff Wireless Discovery LLC, both of which saw new litigation in April. Another inventor-controlled plaintiff, FacetoFace Biometrics, Inc., launched a campaign targeting the sending of “Memoji” animated emoticons over iMessage.

For more on the latest patent litigation and marketplace trends, see RPX’s second-quarter review.