IP Edge LLC, through plaintiff Kwality IP LLC, has targeted mobile point-of-sale systems, including credit card readers and accompanying mobile apps, in one of the many campaigns that the Texas monetization firm began at the end of September. The complaints target features related to making secure financial transactions in such products provided by Allied Wallet (2:20-cv-08917), Global Payments (1:20-cv-04021), MasterCard (1:20-cv-01315), ShopKeep (1:20-cv-01316), or Square (1:20-cv-01317). Kwality IP's is one of a growing number of campaigns to arise from portfolios that IP Edge has picked up from Empire Technology Development LLC over the past year.
The asserted patent (8,719,165) generally relates to completing a secure transaction over a mobile device, where a portion of the transaction is completed through a "customer secure computing device". Comprising a family of one, it issued to Empire Technology in May 2014 with estimated priority date in July 2009. Its sole named inventor is Shaibal Roy, who identifies himself on social media as the founder and CEO of Applied Research Works (ARW), "an employee-owned, privately-held health information technology company". Roy assigned the application that led to the '165 patent to ARW, and ARW to Empire Technology, in December 2011.
In August 2020, Empire Technology assigned the patent to IP Edge entity Mellaconic IP LLC, which farmed it out to Kwality IP last month. The acquisition followed earlier transactions with Empire Technology, including three deals dated in December 2019—one each through IP Edge entities Chimetech Licensing LLC, Crave Licensing LLC, and Xinctec Technologies LLC. At least three more deals with Empire Technology followed in 2020, one each through Atestraw Licensing LLC and Syclone IP LLC in April 2020 and the Mellaconic IP pickup in August 2020. Nine of IP Edge's nearly 30 campaigns launched in 2020 to date have arisen from the patents flowing through the deal spigot from Empire Technology.
Empire Technology is a subsidiary of Allied Inventors Management, LLC (AIM), which was founded in 2015 for the reported sole purpose of monetizing patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). AIM still reports on its website having thousands of IP assets and $600M from about 30 institutional investors, among them a number of leading endowments and foundations in the US; however, currently available USPTO assignment records identify just over 2,200 patent assets held. AIM has described its portfolio as covering "a wide spectrum of technology areas such as next generation materials, telemedicine, surgical devices, and information and communication technologies".
IP Edge itself was formed in July 2015 by Texas attorneys Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi, Sanjay Pant, and Lillian Woung. It has been the top filer of NPE cases over the past several years; in total, since just before and then after inception, it has launched roughly over 120 litigation campaigns, reliably conducted in file-and-settle fashion. The firm has never taken a case to trial, with litigation usually ending at the pleadings stage, or just after. It is worth noting, however, that IP Edge recently filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) (a first for the firm), arguing the presence of a domestic industry based on the US activities of the original source of the patents asserted in that campaign, Siemens.
In its case against Allied Wallet, filed in the Central District of California, Kwality IP has identified no nonparties having an interest in the outcome of the litigation. 9/29, Allied Wallet, Central District of California; 9/29, Global Payments, Northern District of Georgia; 9/29, MasterCard, ShopKeep, Square, District of Delaware.
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