Lenovo sues Longhorn IP and Hamilcar Barca in North Carolina, invokes state anti-troll law over patent demands

Context:

• Lenovo has been fending off a four-patent portfolio asserted by Hamilcar Barca IP LLC since October 2023, while other affiliates of Longhorn IP LLC,  an entity that shares common ownership and management with Hamilcar, have separately filed four patent suits against Lenovo’s Hong Kong-based parent, Lenovo Group Limited (LGL), in the Eastern District of Texas since October 2025 – the latter three in June 2026 alone. Longhorn IP, a Texas-based patent monetization firm, is the common thread behind dozens of affiliated shell entities that acquire patents and pursue licensing revenue from operating companies, a business model ip fray has covered before, including Longhorn’s sale of a patent portfolio it obtained from Hikvision (April 29, 2026 ip fray article) and its withdrawal of an infringement suit against PACCAR following Acer’s own retreat (April 22, 2026 ip fray article).
• Lenovo has settled or resolved several other patent disputes in recent months, including a global standard-essential patent (SEP) dispute with ASUSTeK (June 30, 2026, ip fray article) and a long-running U.S. fight over USB-C patents (February 6, 2026 ip fray article), but it remains a defendant in a separate campaign brought by ParTec over supercomputer patents before the UPC (May 27, 2026 ip fray article).