Sprint Nextel

On February 16, 2012, Intellectual Ventures (“IV”) launched its seventh patent infringement suit, this time against AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile . In a familiar pattern, all but one of the patents in the suit were assigned to what appear to be IV “shell” companies before their most recent assignment to Intellectual Ventures by name. To IV’s chagrin, all three defendants control significant intellectual property estates in the technology space of the asserted patents; AT&T alone owns almost 500 properties that predate the patents being asserted against them.

The November 20, 2009 lawsuit with Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Walmart Stores Inc., and others, was the most recent in a string of litigation DownUnder Wireless, LLC had filed against cell phone manufacturers, providers and retailers. On May 27, 2010, nearly 20 of the defendants filed a joint motion to dismiss the suit after agreeing to cooperate with DownUnder Wireless, presumably paying a licensing fee in the process.