New Mexico entity Lab Technology LLC has filed separate Eastern District of Texas cases against Samsung (2:24-cv-00324) and Verizon (2:24-cv-00323). Against Samsung the plaintiff asserts five patents apparently received from TP Lab, Inc., three of which are also in suit against Verizon. One of those three patents asserted against both Samsung and Verizon generally relates to "refreshing" a phone's display with a location-specific "communication service". Lab Technology is not the first plaintiff to accuse Samsung of infringing that patent, here targeting provision of the Galaxy Watch6 where the prior lawsuit, dismissed with prejudice in January 2019, focused on Samsung smartphones.
In its pre-2020 campaign, Local Intelligence, LLC, an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC, accused Samsung (in an Eastern District of Texas complaint), as well as HTC (in the Northern District of California) and LG Electronics (LGE, in the District of Delaware), of infringing that patent (9,219,982), among others. HTC filed a motion to dismiss the complaint filed against it, arguing that the claims of the patents-in-suit, including the '982 patent, are all ineligibly directed under Alice to the abstract idea of "providing communication information based on location and other user information". Northern District of California Judge Edward J. Davila denied the motion, "conclud[ing] that the . . . specific improvement to user interfaces claimed here is also not an abstract idea". Samsung is accused of infringing the '982 patent over smart watches, including the Galaxy Watch6, that "operate[] as a telephone to make calls and text using the contacts stored inside the memory"; and for Verizon, over the Care Smart mobile app, which provides "communications and location service[s] for smartwatches".
The California and Texas suits ended in the runup to claim construction, while Local Intelligence's Delaware case against LGE was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice before an answer (or other response) to that complaint was filed. The family of patents to which the '982 patent belongs issued to TP Lab between December 2014 and December 2015 with an estimated priority date in June 2006 and sole named inventor Shin Cheung Simon Chiu. Chiu and Chi Fai Ho, the founder and CEO of TP Lab, are both named inventors on a family of 12 emergency caller location patents, one of which (8,503,973) is also asserted against both Samsung and Verizon. That family was also transferred from TP Lab to Dominion's Local Intelligence back in August 2017. Local Intelligence never asserted patents from this family, transferring its assets back to TP Lab in November 2019. Samsung and Verizon are targeted over products, including the Samsung Galaxy S24+ smartphone and Verizon Webex Cloud Communication platform, respectively, that support Enhanced 911 (E911) emergency services.
A third patent (8,515,032) is in suit against both Samsung and Verizon, with two others asserted against only Samsung (8,498,388; 9,578,570). Currently available USPTO records do not reflect the assignment of any of these three patents away from TP Lab (to Local Intelligence earlier or to Lab Technology more recently), but Lab Technology pleads ownership. The '032 patent generally relates to voice messaging; the '388 patent, to receiving an "announcement" at a telephone; and the '570 patent, to "switching an Instant Messaging (IM)-based first voice call" to a second one. Ho and Chiu are these patents' named inventors as well. Samsung is accused of infringing the '388 patent through the provision of smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, that support the Bixby assistant; and the '570 patent, over smartphones (i.e., the Galaxy S10 smartphone) that support features for switching from voice calls made over LTE to calls on 3G or 2G networks. Samsung and Verizon are accused of infringing the '032 patents through the provision of messaging apps that support features for "storing and synchronizing audio messages along with the associated status of the audio message".
Ho was formerly Senior Director of Business Strategy at Nokia and VP of Engineering at Amber Networks. (Nokia acquired Amber Networks, a maker of edge routers, for $421M in 2001.) According to his TP Lab bio, Ho "led the innovation of mobile Internet service routing" at Nokia. He also served as CTO of the Ethernet division of Vitesse Semiconductor. In 1997, Ho founded IPLearn LLC, an entity that has asserted online education patents against several dozen defendants. He founded TP Lab in 2004.
Currently available USPTO records indicate that TP Lab holds over 100 patents, the company characterizing its "main invention areas" as "Internet-telecommunication convergence, Web-oriented personal communication, and consumer digital media such as music and videos". USPTO records also indicate that patents developed at TP Lab have been transferred to Dolby, as well as to apparent NPEs ZAMA Innovations LLC (in August 2021 after a November 2019 transfer to Allied Security Trust), Fiver LLC (in September 2017), InnoBrilliance, LLC (in July 2017), and Knapp Investment Company Limited (in December 2015). For more on these transfers, see here.
Lab Technology (of uncertain management or personnel) was formed in New Mexico on January 8, 2024. A pattern appears to be developing here, of recently-formed New Mexico plaintiffs launching litigation over patents the assignment of which to the new plaintiffs has yet to be recorded and through the representation of Rabicoff Law LLC, which filed Lab Technology's complaints for the NPE. For other examples, see RPX's coverage of new campaigns initiated by Data Resonance LLC, Payvox LLC, and Pointwise Ventures LLC. Rabicoff Law LLC has lately filed multiple complaints on behalf of plaintiffs with ties to increasingly prolific monetization figure Jeffrey M. Gross.
The new Lab Technology cases have been assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap. 5/3, Eastern District of Texas.
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