Some of the recent updates on patent litigation filed by NPEs against big companies in areas of Smart Phone/wireless/Connectivity technologies :

Sources are from RPX Corporation: https://www.rpxcorp.com/

1. VoIP-Pal.Com (VPLM) has filed separate western district of Texas lawsuits against Alphabet (Google) (6:21-cv-00667), Amazon (6:21-cv-00668), Apple (6:21-cv-00670), AT&T (6:21-cv-00671), Facebook (6:21-cv-00665), T-Mobile (6:21-cv-00674), and Verizon (6:21-cv-00672)—Asserting a family of two patents new to litigation. The publicly traded NPE describes the patents as describing “systems, apparatuses and methods for providing an access code to roaming mobile communication devices such as smartphones, to enable access to suitable communication routing infrastructure, wherein the selection of the communication channel for a call can be optimized based on the calling device’s current location”, with infringement allegations targeting the “calling systems” of each defendant, comprised of servers and a host of interconnected devices. VPLM’s first campaign is a somewhat storied affair, in various district courts as well as before the PTAB. Source
2. Rock Creek Networks, LLChas added cases against NVIDIA (6:21-cv-00675) and Senao Networks (6:21-cv-00673) to the campaign that it began in January of this year. The new suits come as litigation against four prior defendants has either ended or been stayed. The same patent has been at issue throughout, with infringement allegations focusing on networking devices compliant with the IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standard. Source
3. American Patents LLChas filed a round of new cases in its only active litigation campaign, suing Continental (6:21-cv-00635), Newell Brands (BRK Brands) (6:21-cv-00636), Sierra Wireless (6:21-cv-00637), Xerox (6:21-cv-00638), and Zebra Technologies (6:21-cv-00639), all in the Western District of Texas. The plaintiff asserts four patents, generally related to interactions between smart devices and communication networks, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of a wide variety of devices (e.g., modules, routers, telematics solutions, transceivers, vehicle-mounted computers, etc.) that support wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi and/or cellular). Source
4. Best Buy (4:21-cv-00464) and Walmart (4:21-cv-00465) are the latest defendants to be added to the fourth litigation campaign of inventor-controlled Implicit, LLC, launched in May 2021 with a suit against Target. The plaintiff asserts a single patent generally related to organizing data through “user defined attributes”, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of their respective e-commerce websites. At issue are features for associating products with information such as categories, prices, user reviews, and more. Source
5. Texas Instruments (TI) (2:21-cv-00221) has been sued through a new Eastern District of Texas complaint, the defendant accused of infringing a single patent broadly pertaining to a radio-frequency (RF) module assembly. The plaintiff, Texas LFP, LLC, targets TI over the provision of its SimpleLink-series of devices, including the CC2650MODA wireless module—in particular, the incorporation of certain RF modules that support the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.1 specification. Source