Seattle Patent Litigation Update: September 2008

Three new patent cases were filed in Seattle last month, all three assigned to Judge Pechman.

September 26, 2008
Amphipod Inc v. Penguin Brands Inc
Pechman

September 16, 2008
Majestec 125 LLC v. Maritime Fabrications Inc
Pechman

September 12, 2008
Wistron Corporation v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al
Pechman

Perhaps the most interesting of the three is the Wistron case against Samsung, where Taiwanese interests are at odds with with Korean interests over the right to sell and import certain PCs, laptops, notebooks, and other computing devices in the U.S.

Established in 2001, Wistron's product development focuses on information communication technology, including notebook and desktop systems that it supplies to other companies to sell under their own brand name. Some well known brands incorporating Wistron's products include Microsoft, HP, Dell, and Lenovo. Samsung is a well know manufacturer and seller of consumer electronic equipment ranging from DVD players to cell phones. According to the complaint, in 2007 Samsung had $7.4 Billion in income from nearly $100 Billion in sales.

There are three patents at issue in the Wistron case, all relating to Power Management, US Patent Nos. 5,410,713, 5,870,613, and 5,903,765. As a side issue, all three patents were once assigned to Smith Corona/Acer of New Canaan Conn., a company that, according to Wistron's website, was a predecessor in interest to Wistron (at least Acer Inc. was). USPTO assignment records show that these patents were assigned to Acer America Corportation in December 1995, and then to Wistron Corporation in July 2008. As yet another side issue, Samsung and Wistron are also parties to another lawsuit in the ND of California over US Patent Nos. 5,333,273, 5625,275, and 6,523,100, owned by Samsung. In the California case, Wistron is a DJ plaintiff. The California patents relate to ISA computer architecture, such as the intel x86 type microprocessor, in particular so-called "hot keys" that control "terminate and stay resident" (TSR) programs. Samsung has already successfully litigated the '273 patent in a case against Quanta, 3:00-CV-04524 VRW.

In other Seattle patent litigation news, Amazon was sued over home automation systems last month. It and 11 other companies were alleged to infringe US Patent Nos 6,891,838 and 7,103,511, patents covering systems that automatically adjust things like temperature, lights, security, entertainment, and plant watering, among other systems that use energy in your home. The plaintiff is SIPCO LLC, an entity that was formerly known as "Statsignal IPC LLC" according to filings before the Georgia Secretary of State's office. The patents in suit have changed hands six times since 2000, including a sojourn with Hunt Technologies, a company that was later absorbed by Landis+Gyr. SIPCO gained ownership of the patents by way of a judicial decree in July 2007, handed down by the U.S.D.C. in the Northern District of Georgia. I'm sure there is a story there, but I'm too busy to chase it down. SIPCO is related in some way to IP Co. LLC, they share the similar corporate addresses, names, and agents, according to Georgia Records (IP Co. used to be known as "Statsignal Metering Company, LLC."). IP Co. and SIPCO were plaintiffs in a case against Cellnet Technologies, Inc. and Hunt Technologies, LLC, (among others) filed in 2006 in Georgia.

Microsoft was also busy last month. Its summary judgment victory over Uniloc, Inc. was remanded by the CAFC for trial after en banc review was denied (08-1121). The Uniloc patent at issue is US No. 5,490,216 covering certain computer security technology. Microsoft was also sued by Stragent LLC (again) in connection with a patent for voice activation technology. The patent-in-suit is U.S. No. 7,424,431. Microsoft's other dispute with Stragent LLC is over U.S. 6,665,722. In that case, Microsoft is joined by Defendants, Nokia, Yahoo!, Google, Motorola, Palm, Sony Ericsson Mobile, and AT and T. The '722 patent owned by Stragent is alleged to cover certain mobile messaging systems.

Stragent is a patent holding company organized by Kevin Zilka of Zilka-Kotab P.C. Stragent acquired the '722 patent from BBN Technologies in 2007 and it acquired the '431 patent from Voice Demand, Inc. in the same year.