United States: WiLAN Subsidiary Sues AMD In West Texas

Eridanus Technologies, Inc. (ETI) received five patents from STMicroelectronics back in February 2015, but the Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) subsidiary filed what appears to be its first suit from that received portfolio just this past week. ETI accuses AMD ( 1:23-cv-01036) of infringing two of those patents—one generally related to reducing current leakage in logic devices; the other, to managing power supply to a system-on-chip (SoC)—through the provision of various computer processors (i.e., APUs and CPUs). The case comes after big changes were announced at WiLAN earlier this summer.

The seeming delay in filing suit may be partly explained by ETI's allegations regarding AMD's presuit knowledge, the plaintiff pleading that it "repeatedly attempted to engage AMD and/or its agents in licensing discussions related to its portfolio including the Asserted Patents. At least as of May 2021, ETI presented AMD with charts detailing its infringement of the Asserted Patents. Despite ETI's efforts, AMD ignored its infringement, leaving ETI with no other choice but to seek relief through patent enforcement litigation and filing suit in this district".

The delay might also be explained by changes at WILAN over the years. Established in 1992 as an operating company, Quarterhill Inc., a publicly traded Canadian entity that—until recently—fully owned WiLAN, began litigating its patents in 2007. In April 2017, Quarterhill announced a restructuring of its business model, de-emphasizing patent licensing and refocusing on the acquisition of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) businesses. The company's name was changed from "Wi-LAN Inc." to Quarterhill the following June, with WiLAN continuing its operations as a "key subsidiary of Quarterhill focusing on patent licensing".

However, the company announced in a June 2023 press release that it had sold 90% of that licensing arm to a pair of New York-based investment firms, Owlpoint IP Opportunities JVF LP, a joint venture between Arena Investors, LP and Owlpoint Capital Management, LLC. ETI's corporate disclosure confirms that it is owned by Owlpoint IP Opportunities and Quarterhill, presumably according to that 90-10 split.

On its website, Owlpoint is described as a private credit and direct lender focused on investments backed by IP "and other intangible assets" including patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Arena Investors is a global institutional asset manager with approximately $3.5B in assets under management as of March 31. It does not appear to be related to Arena Consulting LLC, a litigation funder tied to certain patent plaintiffs, including Arendi S.A.R.L. and CogniPower, LLC. For additional details concerning that sale, as well as for an overview of WiLAN's recent litigation activity, see prior RPX coverage here.

In its new Western District of Texas complaint, ETI identifies a long list of products accused of infringing the two asserted patents (7,372,764; 7,671,623): "Ryzen 1000 Series CPUs; Ryzen 2000 Series CPUs and APUs; Ryzen 3000 and Pro 3000 Series APUs; Ryzen Threadripper 2000 Series CPUs; Ryzen Embedded R1000 Series CPUs and APUs; Ryzen Embedded V1000 Series CPUs and APUs; Ryzen Embedded R2000 Series APUs; Ryzen Embedded 2000 AM4 Series APUs; EPYC 7001 Series CPUs; EPYC Embedded 3000 Series CPUs; and EPYC Embedded 7001 Series CPUs, and any current and future generations of AMD products employing on die LDO regulation".

Each of the asserted patents comprises a single-member family. ETI's holdings, which appear (at least according to currently available USPTO records) to be limited to the pickup from STMicro, can be reviewed on RPX Insight here. Industry veteran Michael Vladescu, the CEO of WILAN at the time, signed for ETI with respect to that transaction (as ETI's COO). Vladescu died unexpectedly in May 2022.

Nelson Bumgardner Conroy PC filed the new complaint on ETI's behalf. The case has yet to be assigned to a judge. 9/1, Western District of Texas.

Original publication date: September 4, 2023