Did you know that there has been a surge in software patent lawsuits in Texas? Specifically, the Eastern District of Texas which handled 29% of all patent lawsuits filed in the first quarter of 2024, making it the top venue for software patent litigation. Wowzers! Here is a quote from Quandry Peak Research, a company that supplies expert witness testimony, among other things.
In the past year, we have consulted more than 20 patent cases in Texas, representing plaintiffs and defendants. Notably, our software experts served in the following cases that were filed in the Eastern District of Texas:
Polaris PowerLED Technologies, LLC v. Samsung Electronics America | 2023
Touchstream Technologies, Inc v. Charter Communications, Inc | 2023
Touchstream Technologies, Inc v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC | 2023
Multimodal Media LLC v. ZTE Corporation | 2023
Multimodal Media LLC v. Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecomm. Corp., Ltd. | 2023
Taasera Licensing, LLC v. Trend Micro, Check Point Software, Palo Alto Networks | 2023
Entangled Media, LLC v. Dropbox, Inc. | 2023
HowLink Global LLC v. Verizon, Corp.; ATT Corp. | 2023
Daingean Technologies Ltd. v. AT&T Inc, et al | 2023
Lexos Media IP, LLC v. Northern Tool & Equipment Company, Inc | 2023
Wildseed Mobile, LLC v. Google LLC | 2023
MyPort, Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 2022
Via Transportation, Inc v. RideCo Inc | 2022And, these cases filed in the Western District of Texas also relied on our experts:
Smart Mobile Technologies, LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | 2023
Entangled Media, LLC v. Dropbox, Inc | 2023 | WD of Texas
Cutting Edge Vision, LLC v. TCL Technology Group Corporation, et al. | 2023
Wildseed Mobile v. Google LLC | 2023
WSOU v. Google | 2023
AlmondNet Inc v. Amazon.com Inc | 2023
Best Ring, LLC v. Ronin POS, LLC | 2023
From a sourcer’s point of view, this is interesting because it represents an untapped talent pool. What do I mean by that? If Company A is suing Company B because their technologies are so similar then, they have comparable talent you may want to hire. For example, I’ve never heard of “Polaris PowerLED Technologies, LLC” but they are in a patent lawsuit with Samsung. My imaginary client cannot afford to recruit someone from Samsung because the salaries of their employees are just too high for them. However, they can compete with Polaris PowerLED, a much smaller company, so why not target them? Make sense?
If you like this approach, you may want to set up alerts on major competitors via Google. For instance, let’s say that Adobe is a major rival or at the least, you have an interest in the technical talent they employ. Do a search like this…
And you find several entities who may have the talent you are looking for AND they are talent you may be able to afford. Now searching this way can be time consuming so why not automate it by setting up a Google alert to get updates like this on a weekly basis. Just a thought.
If you find this appealing, and I suspect you do, here are some charts for more Google alert inspiration, courtesy of Unified Patents.
Open Source is used daily by just about everyone, whether they know it or not. Whether it is Linux, Python, PHP, Apache, FileZilla, FireFox, or some other package, open source code projects are widely and commonly used across product categories. While the backbone of open source code was meant to be held open by all to allow others to make improvements and share those improvements, some have had other ideas. Indeed, non-practicing entities, or NPEs, have begun to sue open source projects and creators for patent infringement on overbroad software patents that likely never should have been issued.
I’m curious as to what you think of this approach. Post your comments on social media and tag @Sourcecon so I can react.
Cheers,
Jim Stroud
Your SourceCon Editor