14
Sep
By Eric Schweibenz and Alex Englehart
On September 14, 2018, INVT SPE LLC of San Francisco, California (“INVT”) filed a complaint (part 1 and part 2) requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section 337.

The complaint alleges that Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California (“Apple”), HTC Corp. of Taiwan and HTC America, Inc. of Seattle, Washington (collectively, “HTC”), and ZTE Corp. of China and ZTE (USA) Inc. of Richardson, Texas (collectively, “ZTE”) (all collectively, the “Proposed Respondents”) unlawfully import into the U.S., sell for importation, and/or sell within the U.S. after importation certain LTE- and 3G-compliant cellular communications devices that infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,760,590 (the ’590 patent), 7,206,587 (the ’587 patent), 7,764,711 (the ’711 patent), 7,848,439 (the ’439 patent), and 7,339,949 (the ’949 patent) (collectively, the “asserted patents”).

According to the complaint, the asserted patents generally relate to a number of LTE and 3G 3GPP cellular communications standards. In particular, the ’590 and ’587 patents relate to a communication terminal apparatus that supports a feature required by the UMTS (3G), LTE, and LTE+ (4G) standards related to downlink data transmission. The ’711 patent relates to technology used in LTE+ cellular communications systems. The ’439 and ’949 patents relate to technology used in LTE and LTE+ cellular communications systems.

In the complaint, INVT states that the Proposed Respondents import and sell products that infringe the asserted patents. The complaint specifically refers to the Apple iPhone X, the HTC U11, and the ZTE MAX XL as infringing products.

Regarding domestic industry, INVT states that its licensees—including Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”)—have made significant and substantial investments in the U.S. relating to articles that practice at least one claim of each asserted patent. The complaint specifically refers to the Samsung Galaxy S9 as a domestic industry product covered by at least one claim of each asserted patent. INVT further states that Samsung and its affiliates have conducted relevant engineering, research and development, testing, quality control, packaging, compliance, and customer service and support activities in the U.S. relating to the Samsung domestic industry products.

As to related litigation, INVT states that it is currently asserting all of the asserted patents except the ’949 patent against the Proposed Respondents in various U.S. district court actions. INVT also refers to related pending litigations against certain Apple and ZTE entities in Germany.

With respect to potential remedy, INVT requests that the Commission issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders directed at the Proposed Respondents and related entities.



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