Inventor-controlled plaintiff GenghisComm Holdings, LLC has added Samsung (2:24-cv-00242) to its sole litigation campaign, which targets devices that are compliant with the 4G/LTE and 5G wireless networking standards. In the new Eastern District of Texas complaint, the plaintiff asserts eight patents broadly directed to wireless communications. Since launching this campaign in March 2022, GenghisComm has sued eight defendants, including ASUSTek, Continental, LG Electronics (LGE), OnePlus, and Toyota.
Belonging to a family of 93, the patents-in-suit (9,768,842; 10,200,227; 10,389,568; 11,075,786; 11,223,508; 11,252,005; 11,381,285; 11,424,792) issued between September 2017 and August 2022 with an earliest estimated priority date in April 2001. The sole named inventor is Steven J. ("Steve") Shattil, who formed GenghisComm in Colorado on January 14, 2014. Current USPTO assignment records suggest that the entity now holds around 80 US patents, down from roughly 100 after it assigned a batch to Tybalt, LLC, apparently another Shattil entity, formed in Colorado on January 2, 2022. GenghisComm transferred three dozen patents to Tybalt in February 2022, but Tybalt passed 12 of those assets back to GenghisComm in September 2023. (Tybalt's current holdings, as reflected in publicly available USPTO records, are viewable on RPX Insight here.)
On social media, Shattil holds himself out as having been the "Director of Intellectual Property Strategy and Licensing" with GenghisComm Holdings since October 2008. Previously, he identified that position as having ended November 2021, describing the company as "implement[ing] patent strategies for the world's leading companies across the telecommunications and energy industries" and further describing his own position as "Director of Wireless Patent Strategy". In that capacity, he reported having "enabled clients to radically increase the value of their intellectual property in their respective industries, including cellular (LTE and 5G), navigation, satellite communications, wireless personal area networks, Internet of Things, optical fiber communications, content delivery networks, network fabrics, and a particularly exciting new field in Artificial Intelligence", claiming that "[p]atent portfolios that [he] directed now cover trillions of dollars in products and services annually".
Shattil also listed in a prior iteration of his public resume a position with Department 13, as its "Chief Science Officer" from September 2015 also through November 2021, describing his tenure there: "Through a strategy of technology development, patent acquisitions, and patent licensing, I enabled D13 to dominate the patent landscape in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commercial services, UAV air-space management, and counter UAV markets. This gave D13 the opportunity to collect licensing revenues for products and services that total more than $200 billion per year". Shattil identified previous positions generally related to patent/patenting strategy with various companies, all of which has since been pared down, just to his association with the plaintiff.
As noted, GenghisComm launched this, its sole litigation campaign with separate March 2022 suits against ASUSTek and OnePlus, followed by complaints filed against Toyota, LGE, TCL, and Doro (in that order), and most recently Continental, in January 2024. A majority of cases have been dismissed with prejudice at the early pleading stages, several in light of noticed settlements. Only the suit against TCL remains active; there, the parties are scheduled to enter claim construction in September of this year. For additional RPX coverage on this campaign, see "GenghisComm Turns to Continental Automotive" (January 2024).
In its complaint, the plaintiff seeks a judgment of willful infringement, pleading that it sent a letter informing Samsung of its infringement of the '842, '227, and '568 patents as early as November 2020. The parties are alleged to have communicated over the next several years, with Samsung having "never made anything other than an initial offer to license the portfolio, despite GenghisComm's explanations and rate card guidance".
The new East Texas case has been assigned to District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III. Global IP Law Group LLC represents GenghisComm in this campaign. 4/12, Eastern District of Texas.
April 21, 2024
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