United States: Plaintiff Tied To A Familiar Figure Targets Content And Software Update Tools In First Litigation

Identifying an errant state of formation, Media Key LLC has filed its first litigation, suing Amazon (2:24-cv-00143) in the Eastern District of Texas; F5 (2:24-cv-00279) in the Western District of Washington; LG Electronics (LGE) (1:24-cv-00204) and Microsoft (1:24-cv-00201) in the Western District of Texas; and Open Text (Micro Focus) (4:24-cv-00716) in the Southern District of Texas. The sole asserted patent generally relates to updating or revising a user's content through a "keying application", with the defendants accused of infringement over the support of content and/or software update tools in their various products.

More specifically, Media Key accuses Amazon of infringing that patent (7,606,876) through the provision of the Alexa voice assistant platform and Amazon CloudFront web service; F5, through the BIG-IP Video Traffic Steering service; LGE, through the LG Supersign CMS platform; Micro Focus, through the ZENworks endpoint management solution; and Microsoft, through the Microsoft Intune endpoint management solution. The '876 patent comprises a family of one and issued in October 2009 with an estimated priority date in August 2003.

Roger Graves and Preston Kincaid are the named inventors of the '876 patent. On social media, Graves—elsewhere described as an "experienced software engineering executive"—reports as having served as "Co-founder & CTO" with "enterprise Decision Intelligent platform" provider Cloverpop (or its subsidiary Clearbox Decisions) since 2013. Kincaid, describing himself as a "veteran Silicon Valley technologist and marketer", holds himself out having served as a "Licensed & Certified Home Inspector" with Kincaid Home Inspection Services since November 2019. Current USPTO assignment records have yet to reflect an assignment of the patent away from "Kincaid Technology Corporation", a defunct Delaware entity that identified Graves as its CEO, but the plaintiff pleads in its complaints that it is the "assignee of all right, title and interest" in the '876 patent.

In its complaints, Media Key alleges that it was formed in New York; publicly available records in that state, however, do not confirm its formation there or any registration as a foreign entity to conduct business in the state. Delaware public records, however, do reflect an entity with the same name, formed there on September 29, 2023. Media Key provides a New York, New York address that has become associated with NPEs under the control of Jeffrey M. Gross.

After litigating a patent on which he was a named inventor, Gross appears to have taken to patent monetization more generally through the assertion of acquired patents—for background concerning that turn in the context of then-recent acquisitions by entities apparently associated with Gross, see "Recent Patent Assignments Make Their USPTO Debut" (February 2023). Gross-linked NPEs have now launched around 70 litigation campaigns—33 of them in 2023 alone, at least five already in 2024.

In April 2022, Delaware Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly posted new standing orders: one requiring litigants to disclose details related to any nonrecourse funding arrangements with third parties; and another requiring all "nongovernmental joint ventures, limited liability corporations, partnerships or limited liability partnerships" to include in disclosure statements "the name of every owner, member and partner of the party, proceeding up the chain of ownership until the name of every individual and corporation with a direct or indirect interest in the party has been identified". Several Delaware cases filed in other Gross-tied campaigns landed before Judge Connolly—and the operation of those standing orders subsequently surfaced information concerning the funding behind those campaigns. See here for more on those proceedings.

The Amazon complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, have been assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap; the F5 suit, filed in the Western District of Washington, has yet to be assigned to a judge; the LGE and Microsoft complaints, filed in the Western District of Texas, also have yet to be assigned to a judge; and the Micro Focus case, filed in the Southern District of Texas, has been assigned to District Judge George C. Hanks, Jr. Rabicoff Law LLC filed the complaints on the plaintiff's behalf. 2/28, Amazon, Eastern District of Texas; 2/28, LGE, Microsoft, Western District of Texas; 2/28, Micro Focus, Southern District of Texas; 2/29, F5, Western District of Washington.

Originally published March 3, 2024.

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