U.S. and Canadian regulators cleared BlackBerry’s definitive agreement to sell the “legacy” portion of its patent portfolio to Catapult IP Innovations for $600 million (see 2201310001), said BlackBerry CEO John Chen on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q4 ended Feb. 28. Of the money changing hands in the sale, $450 million will be due at the close, the rest payable in installments, said Chen. BlackBerry will keep a license to the patents being sold, which mainly involve mobile devices, messaging, wireless networking and other businesses in which BlackBerry is no longer actively involved. “Completion of the remaining closing conditions, including financing, is targeted for the end of this quarter,” said Chen. “Following the sale of the legacy portion of the IP portfolio, we will still retain all patents related to our core IoT and cyber software businesses.” BlackBerry will “keep the door open for future monetization” of the patents it’s retaining, but revenue likely will be “minimal in the near term,” he said. “Upon the closure of the deal, we expect a reduction in the operating costs required to maintain our IP portfolio.”
The International Trade Commission launched a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that devices from Apple, Google, Lenovo, Microsoft, OnePlus, Samsung and TCL infringe a 2007 patent (7,183,835) owned by Arigna Technologies describing power semiconductors that provide short-circuit protection for insulated gate-type switching devices, says a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. Arigna’s Feb. 11 complaint (supplemented Feb. 23 and amended March 17) in docket 337-TA-1308 seeks limited exclusion and cease and desist orders.
The International Trade Commission voted March 23 to terminate its Tariff Act Section 337 investigation (docket 337-TA-1224) into allegations that many PC, TV and chip companies infringed Philips patents on high-bandwidth digital content protection, said a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register. The ITC found no Section 337 violations because the asserted claims of two patents weren't infringed and “domestic industry products do not practice the claims” of the two patents, it said. Philips filed a complaint in fall 2020 naming Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs, Hisense, LG and TCL smart TVs and Intel, MediaTek and Realtek processors as respondents (see 2010190036).
Mattel signed a multiyear license agreement with Universal Pictures to develop a full line of toys for the DreamWorks Animation Trolls franchise, said the licensee Tuesday. Mattel expects to launch the line through global retailers in the fall of 2023, timed to coincide with the November 2023 theatrical release of Trolls 3.
Bungie suffered "nearly incalculable damage" from fake Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices given to YouTube that disrupted the video game developer's players, streamers and fans, it told the U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday in a docket 2:22-cv-00371 complaint seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. It said the takedown notices, purportedly issued on behalf of Bungie, targeted videos people had uploaded to YouTube, with Bungie's permission, of them playing Bungie games. The suit is filed against unnamed John Does. Bungie said it would learn their identities through a subpoena and amend the complaint.
Samsung’s German subsidiary was hit with three lawsuits in a Dusseldorf court for infringing H.265 patents, said MPEG LA Monday. The complaints allege Samsung continued offering smartphones, tablets and TVs with H.265 codecs in Germany despite terminating its role as an MPEG LA patent pool licensor and licensee in 2020, said the license administrator. The litigation seeks injunctions, monetary damages and court costs, said MPEG LA. As for the identity of the plaintiffs, "we have not disclosed that information publicly," emailed an MPEG LA spokesperson, saying MPEG LA wasn't one of them. Samsung joined the rival HEVC Advance patent pool (since renamed Access Advance) as a licensor and licensee in 2017. Samsung didn’t comment.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit reversed the decision of U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, that found in Vizio’s favor in its patent infringement court fight against VDPP, remanding the case for further proceedings, said the court's opinion Friday. VDPP sued in January 2020, alleging the motion-smoothing, local-dimming and black frame insertion functions in Vizio P-series TVs infringe three video processing patents. “Vizio insists that the district court’s analysis was correct and supported by the evidence” when it found that claims of the VDPP patents were “invalid as indefinite,” said the opinion. “Vizio, however, points to no such evidence on appeal.” Vizio didn’t immediately comment on the opinion.
The Copyright Office announced a final rule Friday “establishing procedures for the initial stages of a Copyright Claims Board (CCB) proceeding" under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act (see 2012290048). The rule addresses claims filings, CCB review, service of notice, CCB notifications on pending proceedings, opt-out provisions and counterclaim filings.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland scheduled a June 28 case management virtual conference on the complaint by Finnish inventor Lauri Valjakka alleging the Netflix Open Connect program infringes his July 2013 U.S. patent (8,495,167) on data communications networks (see 2203180053). Tigar is the third judge assigned the case (in docket 4:22-cv-1490) since it was transferred March 9 to Northern California from Waco, Texas. U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi in San Jose immediately recused herself, and a second magistrate judge, Sallie Kim in San Francisco, was removed from the case after Netflix declined Wednesday to have it tried before anyone but a U.S. district judge.
Anonymous emails claiming to be from those behind accused video piracy site PrimeWire should be ignored, studios told the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in a docket 2:21-cv-09317 notice Wednesday. The studios said they were emailed by individuals identifying themselves as the "PrimeWire team" after PrimeWire removed supposedly pirated content (see 2203140047) and were told the links to the content were deleted to comply with the temporary injunction. The studios said the email requested the pending permanent injunction not include the www.primewire.tf domain, which is supposedly free of pirated content. "Out-of-court assertions, made in anonymous emails, merit little weight," the studios said.