Nine Big Mobile Device Brands Slapped With Separate, Nearly Identical Patent Complaints

A Dutch-based owner of several streaming media patents slapped nine prominent smartphone and tablet brands with separate, but nearly identical patent infringement complaints Thursday, seeking in all the cases jury trials, compensatory and punitive damages, and permanent injunctions against the infringing products. Apple, Dell, HTC, Huawei, LG, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Samsung and ZTE are guilty of infringing U.S. patent 8,090,862, published in January 2012, said the owner, Nonend Inventions, of Bilthoven, the Netherlands, in each of the complaints. It also alleged LG has infringed a second patent, U.S. 7,590,752, published in September 2009. Both patents were assigned to Nonend and list Marc van Oldenborgh and Marijn Gnirrep as inventors. The 2012 patent describes systems and methods “for streaming content over a network that enables communication between a first consumer node, a second consumer node, and a production node.” The 2009 patent describes the “apparatus” for “playing media content on a media player while streaming the retrieved parts of the media content to other devices.” Representatives of the companies named as defendants didn’t comment. All the complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas. It’s part of the Eastern District of Texas that CEA President Gary Shapiro recently blasted as a “notoriously” friendly haven for frivolous patent infringement suits (see 1502270013). For LG, it’s the second patent infringement complaint filed against the company within a week in the same courthouse (see 1504060053).