Hanger Solutions, LLC is one of several Georgia entities associated with Atlanta-based monetization firm IPInvestments Group LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group) to have collectively acquired thousands of patent assets from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in late 2019. Those portfolios have spawned multiple litigation campaigns since, now including a case filed directly by Hanger, which earlier this month sued Extreme Networks (1:21-cv-00040) in the District of Delaware over three of its acquired assets. The NPE targets Extreme for its provision of the Extreme Cloud network management platform and Extreme Networks SLX-series switches.
Two of the three patents-in-suit (6,430,623; 6,772,227) belong to a family of three with issue dates ranging from September 2000 through August 2004. The '623 patent is generally related to communicating with an entity from outside a private network through an "intermediate entity"; the '227 patent, to routing communications between "address spaces". The family's sole named inventor, Hasan S. Alkhatib identifies himself as an "Ex-Microsoft Executive, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and professor of Computer Engineering", who has been an "Advisor to the Minister of Communications in Iraq" since February 2011 and the president of SSN Services, LLC, an "information and communication technologies" consultancy, since May 2017. The development work for this family of patents was conducted at IP Dynamics, a company that founder Alkhatib describes as "introduce[ing] the industry's first platform for hosting (cloud-based) secure, software connectivity services that enable users and resources to connect securely from anywhere to anywhere regardless of their location and the underlying network". IP Dynamics assigned the family to IV in 2008.
Extreme Networks is accused of infringing the '623 and '227 patents through the provision of the Extreme Cloud platform.
Comprising a family of one, the third patent (6,609,159) issued to Fast Engines, an entity that founder and CEO Semyon Dukach, one of the '159 patent's named inventors, describes as having "[o]riginally spun from North American Media Engines, having "built software that improved the performance of web applications for dozens of Fortune 500 companies in the late 90's", and having been sold to Adero in March of 2000. Dukach appears to have acquired rights to the '159 patent back in May 2003 and passed the asset along to IV roughly three years later. Dukach currently identifies himself as a "managing partner" with One Way Ventures in the Boston area; the entity is characterized as "[b]acking great immigrant tech founders . . . [b]ecause immigrants don't buy round trip".
Extreme Networks is accused of infringing the '159 patent through the provision of the SLX-series switches.
IV passed the asserted patents to Hanger Solutions among a set of large divestitures to IPinvestments Group beginning in 2019, vaulting the firm the top of the list of recipients of IV divestitures over the last several years. Prior to the acquisitions of those sizeable portfolios, IPinvestments Group had been acquiring and litigating other patents from IV, through, for example, NPEs FireNet Technologies, LLC, SynchView Technologies, LLC, Universal Transdata, LLC, and Visible Connections, LLC, among others. The relationship deepened, however, with the deal with Hanger and its sister entities CDN Innovations, LLC, which has launched a wireless communications campaign over patents received; CommWorks Solutions, LLC, a networking campaign; DataCloud Technologies, LLC, a cloud computing campaign; and DigiMedia Tech, LLC, a digital camera campaign.
Hanger has also transferred some of the patents that it received to other litigating NPEs, including Kioba Processing, LLC (two US patents), which has been running a financial services since July 2020, and 21ST CENTURY GARAGE LLC (around 70 patent assets), which launched an automotive campaign in May 2020.
IPinvestments Group itself was formed in Georgia in September 2005 by president and CEO Michael McLaughlin, an industry veteran with a finance background who came to IPinvestments Group after earlier positions with monetization/licensing firms InteCap (1998 through 2003) and IPAC (2003 through 2005, subsequently renamed Scenera Research LLC). IPinvestments Group identifies Ryan E. Strong as its COO and cofounder; Strong also reports training in finance and accounting, with past positions with InteCap and IPAC. The firm's CTO is Bill Hartselle, a Georgia lawyer with past licensing and patent positions with ANTEC (now ARRIS) and Bell South.
The case against Extreme Networks has been initially assigned to District Judge Maryellen Noreika. Hanger Solutions is represented by Stamoulis and Weinblatt LLC. 1/14, District of Delaware.
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