Acacia Research Corporation formed at least two new Texas NPEs in April, according to that state's public records. One of those recently created NPEs holds a portfolio of patents that originate with Panasonic and generally concern digital mapping. While Acacia has disclosed having acquired multiple patent portfolios this year-including two received from Marconi in February, one of which included patents developed by Samsung-it is not yet clear from whom Acacia received the former Panasonic patents.

T&M Data Update LLC was formed by Acacia in Texas on April 1, 2020 and received the former Panasonic patents from Acacia Research Group LLC on April 22. The portfolio comprises five US patents (viewable on RPX Insight here) and a number of counterparts in Europe and Japan. Currently available USPTO records do not reflect an assignment of the patents away from Panasonic or to Acacia Research Group.

T&M Data Update has not filed any patent litigation as of the original publication date of this article (May 2, 2020), but given Acacia's recent reinvigoration of its patent assertion business, a launch of the NPE's inaugural campaign looks imminent.

Following several relatively quiet years on the patent assertion front, Acacia markedly ramped up its litigation activity in the wake of an activist investor-led transformation begun in 2018. A similar acceleration has followed the late 2019 announcement of its partnership with hedge fund Starboard Ventures-which has given Acacia access to up to $500M in new capital. (See here for information about Acacia's Q4 2019 financials and additional background on the NPE's strategic transformation.)

2019 saw Acacia file more than a dozen new lawsuits in the US and open up its first new litigation campaigns since 2015 (see here for a rundown of Acacia's 2019 litigation activities). So far this year, Acacia has launched three new campaigns: one targeting image sensors; another asserting a patent generally related to semiconductor fabrication; and a networking campaign embroiled in breach of contract claims that involve one of Acacia's board members, a managing director at the prolific litigation funder Burford Capital.

Last month, Acacia (as Cellular Communications Equipment LLC, (CCE)) also revived one of its long-running mobile communications campaigns, hitting BBK Electronics (One Plus Technology) HMD Global, and TCL in separate suits filed in the Eastern District of Texas. While over its seven-year life, this campaign has seen more than 20 patents asserted, against nearly two dozen defendants, the latest complaints assert a single patent, generally related to a mobile operating system with a software process that checks whether an application has permissions to perform a function. The defendants are alleged to infringe that patent through the provision of smartphones running Google's Android 4.2 or higher, targeting the devices' inclusion of the native Android Messaging app. In early April, TCL (TCT Mobile) filed a complaint in the Northern District of California seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement of CCE's asserted patent, pleading that the Texas case was filed in an improper forum. See here for RPX's background coverage.

Other Recent Patent Acquisitions

"We have built the new Acacia to be remarkably flexible", said Chief Investment Officer Al Tobia Jr. during a March 12, 2020 earnings call, adding that Acacia is "not a typical publicly traded, undercapitalized, subscale IP monetization company". Those companies often "lack the balance sheet to be an effective litigant against larger counterparties", said Tobia, and they typically have a "narrow portfolio of patents with too few options for monetizing them".

According to currently available USPTO records, Acacia holds over 2,200 US assets, including portfolios acquired last year from Siemens (see here) and Transpacific IP Group Limited (comprising former Orange S.A. patents now being litigated by an Acacia subsidiary, see here) and portfolios received this year from Marconi, which include former Samsung patents as well as patents developed by Fusion-IO (which in 2014 was acquired by SanDisk for $1.1B (see here).

Acacia has also disclosed acquiring a third portfolio in early 2020-this one "related to speech recognition and voice control"-though it has not provided any information about its origin or assignee. Acacia's CEO Clifford Press told investors on March 12 that the company had paid an aggregate $6M for the three early 2020 patent acquisitions; see "The 'New Acacia' Releases Q4 Earnings, Discloses Recent Patent Acquisitions" (March 2020) for further details.

The Potential Effects of COVID-19

Acacia's cash and short-term investments totaled $168.3M as of December 31, 2019, and as previously noted, its partnership with the hedge fund Starboard Ventures-which was approved in February by Acacia's shareholders-gives Acacia access to up to $500M in new capital.

Across the country, state and federal court systems, as well as litigants, are adjusting to various constraints now in place due to COVID-19-some of which may delay the resolution of district court cases, particularly those nearing trial. The prospect of delays in litigation may not daunt well-funded NPEs like Acacia, given that they are flush with capital and may see turbulence as an advantage during settlement negotiations.

Indeed, it appears to be business as usual at Acacia, with its formation of T&M Data Update (now holding former Panasonic patents); Unification Technologies LLC (now holding the patents received from Marconi); and Avalon Technology Solutions LLC (which Acacia formed on April 24 in Texas, and which does not appear to have yet received any patents), each since late February.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.