Ericsson owns a “valuable portfolio” of patents used globally in cellular handsets, tablets, TVs and “many other electrical devices,” and a wide variety of Samsung smart TVs and smartphones, including the new Galaxy S20+5G flagship phone, infringe four of them, alleged a New Year’s Day complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas. The oldest of the asserted patents (6,879,849) dates to April 2005 and describes an “in-built antenna” for mobile communications devices. The Galaxy S20+5G includes an “antenna pattern” formed of conductive metal located on a “specified planar surface” of a main printed circuit board, next to the phone’s millimeter-wave 5G circuitry, in violation of the patent, said Ericsson. The most recent patent (9,313,178) was granted in April 2016 for a method and system for securing over-the-top live video delivery. Samsung smart TVs and smartphones that support Google’s Widevine digital rights management system “perform the step of detecting content encryption key rotation boundaries between periods of use of different content encryption keys in decrypting retrieved content,” said the complaint. The manner in which the products do so violates the patent, it said. Ericsson seeks a judgment that Samsung’s infringement is “willful,” plus punitive and compensatory damages “in no event less than a reasonable royalty,” it said. Samsung didn’t respond to questions Monday.

Lattice Semiconductor received a deadline extension to Jan. 15 to respond to, oppose or move to quash a Philips subpoena in the International Trade Commission’s Section 337 investigation into allegations that Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs; Hisense, LG and TCL smart TVs; and Intel, MediaTek and Realtek processors infringe Philips high-bandwidth digital content protection patents (see 2010190036). Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot granted the Lattice motion for a delay because it was unopposed, said an order (login required) he signed Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1224. The extension will give Lattice, not a party in the investigation, more time to research the subpoena and confer with Philips attorneys “about the scope of their requests,” said its Tuesday motion (login required). The subpoena was served on Lattice Dec. 21 but not posted in the docket.

Comments are due Jan. 5 in docket 337-3517 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 exclusion order that SkyBell Technologies, SB IP Holdings and EyeTalk365 seek on video doorbells and IP cameras from Vivint Smart Home, SimpliSafe and Arlo Technologies, said Monday’s Federal Register. The devices are allegedly infringing seven communications and monitoring systems patents dating to August 2016, one as recently as June 2, said the Dec. 18 complaint (login required). Vivint, Arlo and SimpliSafe are unlawfully importing the accused products to the U.S. from China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam, it said, Granting the import ban and other “remedial orders” will serve the public interest, it said. The accused products “are not necessary to any health or welfare need, and an adequate supply of substitute products will be available through SkyBell and other companies,” it said. "We take patent infringement allegations very seriously and are actively looking into the matter," emailed a SimpliSafe spokesperson Monday. "At this time though, we cannot provide any other comments given the pending litigation." Vivint and Arlo didn’t comment.

WiLan's Xueshan Technologies subsidiary bought a second portfolio of about 2,000 patents from MediaTek, WiLan said Wednesday. Acquired patents involve power management and RF ICs, embedded and near-field communication, microcontrollers and image processors, it said. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Comments are due Dec. 31 in docket 337-3515 at the International Trade Commission on the public-interest ramifications of the exclusion and cease-and-desist orders Tela Innovations seeks against six prominent chipmakers and PC vendors for allegedly infringing a January 2019 semiconductor production patent (10,186,523), said Wednesday’s Federal Register. “A push for higher performance and smaller die size drives the semiconductor industry to reduce circuit chip area” by about half every two years, said the patent. The invention proposes a solution for managing “lithographic gap” as technology continues to progress toward “smaller semiconductor device features sizes,” it said. Acer, Asus, Intel, Lenovo, Micro-Star and MSI Computer are the proposed respondents in Tela’s Dec. 18 complaint. Since Tela’s allegations involve the same accused products that the ITC found to infringe the same claims of the patent in an earlier investigation, “Tela is more than likely to succeed on the merits in proving that these same products infringe the same valid and enforceable claims,” it said in a motion (login required) for a temporary exclusion order: “Absent preliminary relief, Respondents will be able to continue importing, selling for importation, or selling after importation these infringing products, which will result in substantial, irreversible, and unjustifiable injury to Tela, its licensees, and its licensees’ customers.” None of the proposed respondents commented Wednesday.

Samsung’s South Korean parent company applied last week to register “Samsung Micro Color” as a U.K. and U.S. trademark for TVs, digital signage display panels and computer monitors, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung began preorders for its 110-inch 4K MicroLED display, which will be available for the first time in traditional TV form globally in Q1. Samsung said the self-emissive display renders 100% of the DCI and Adobe RGB color gamut and accurately delivers wide color gamut images taken with high-end digital single-lens reflex cameras, but it didn’t use Samsung Micro Color as a descriptor (see 2012110015).

Officials from Facebook, YouTube and RIAA will testify at a Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on online piracy (see 2012080059). Witness are Facebook Global Intellectual Property and Trade Policy Head Probir Mehta, YouTube Global Director-Business Public Policy Katherine Oyama, RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid, Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel, CreativeFuture CEO Ruth Vitale, AdRev President Noah Becker and Coalition for Online Accountability Executive Director Dean Marks.

Verance and Samsung appear to have settled their legal spat over Verance allegations that Samsung reneged on $1.31 million in license royalties for the 7 million Blu-ray players it shipped embedded with Cinavia audio watermark detectors (see 2009200001). The case was terminated Nov. 30 after Verance attorneys filed a notice of voluntary dismissal (in Pacer, docket 1:20-cv-07720) with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Verance described Samsung as “an important business partner” even after filing the action in mid-September, expressing hope then that the matter would be “resolved quickly and fairly.” There was little or no activity in the docket since the case was filed. Verance declined comment Friday about the apparent settlement. Samsung didn't respond to questions.

The International Trade Commission opened a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Pictos Technologies allegations that Samsung smartphone and tablet imports rely on image-sensing trade secrets stolen from Pictos, said a Wednesday notice (login required) in docket 337-TA-1231. Pictos alleges Samsung worked with its predecessor company and was its largest customer but took advantage of its access and misappropriated the predecessor’s technology and trade secrets, then ended the relationship and left the predecessor without its competitive advantage and largest client. The ITC will consider whether to issue limited exclusion and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of allegedly infringing Samsung goods. Samsung didn't comment Monday. It blasted the allegations in a Nov. 6 filing (login required) as "materially deficient." Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, urged the agency to open the probe. Pictos is "suffering from the loss of production revenues and patent royalties" through Samsung's infringement and is "being worn down by these efforts," Crapo wrote (login required) ITC Chairman Jason Kearns Nov. 16.

President-elect Joe Biden should appoint people who “understand the creative community and intellectual property issues,” wrote ASCAP, BMI, Nashville Songwriters Association International, National Music Publishers' Association, RIAA, SoundExchange and dozens of others Monday: It’s “imperative” transition team participants “appropriately represent not just the tech platforms and services that profit from the use of our creative works, but the creators and owners of the works.”