Context: Former operating company Proxense is enforcing biometric authentication and recently also wireless communications patents against major technology companies, including some of the largest in the world. Samsung settled in 2023 on the eve of trial. ip fray became aware of Proxense’s licensing and enforcement activity because the company filed the first-ever patent infringement lawsuit over the Apple Vision Pro device (March 23, 2024 ip fray article). Subsequently we noticed that Proxense’s lawyers from the Hecht Partners firm (with Susman Godfrey co-counseling on some of those cases now) managed to keep related cases before Judge Alan D. Albright in the Western District of Texas, such as through a favorable Federal Circuit decision in a case against Microsoft (April 27, 2024 ip fray article), even under the district’s recently modified assignment rules (June 5, 2024 ip fray article).
What’s new: Yesterday (Monday, January 13, 2025), Proxense and Google filed a stipulation of dismissal of their dispute.
Direct impact: Given that the plaintiff’s claims are dismissed with prejudice, there can be no doubt that Google has taken a license. The other known licensee at this point is, as mentioned before, Samsung.
Wider ramifications: The Google agreement increases the likelihood of Proxense being able to strike deals with other defendants in the same district (Apple, Microsoft, Intel and LG).
It is not easy to put or keep patent cases before Judge Albright (a former patent litigator known for keeping a tight schedule), but Proxense’s lawyers have been quite successful. At this point, judicial economy is always going to weigh strongly in favor of keeping Proxense cases in that district if patent families are at issue with respect to which Judge Albright has already made claim construction and other decisions. What is not viewed favorably in that district is when plaintiffs style patent cases as something else, such as Xockets against Nvidia and Microsoft (December 14, 2024 ip fray article), only to throw in patent infringement claims shortly thereafter. Also, Judge Albright is moving from Waco, where he was the only district judge, to Austin, subject to approval by the Fifth Circuit’s Judicial Council.
This is the wording of the stipulated Proxense-Google dismissal:
STIPULATION OF DISMISSAL
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), Plaintiff, Proxense, LLC, and Defendant, Google LLC, hereby stipulate to the dismissal of the action. All claims of infringement that Plaintiff raised or could have raised in this action are dismissed WITH PREJUDICE. All claims, defenses, or counterclaims that Defendant raised are dismissed WITHOUT PREJUDICE. Each Party will bear its own costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees.
The filing lists the following lawyers:
- Counsel for Proxense: Hecht Partners
- David L. Hecht (who was at Google’s go-to firm Quinn Emanuel during the “Smartphone Patent Wars” and whose copyright-related work, such as a successful appeal on behalf of choreographer Kyle Hanagami against Epic Games, has also received considerable attention (November 1, 2023 Reuters article))
- Maxim Price
- Yi Wen Wu
- Counsel for Google: Quinn Emanuel
- Kevin Hardy
- Sean Pak (who has engineering degrees from MIT as well as a Harvard J.D., and has had notable successes on behalf of Google, Qualcomm (against Apple in 2019, shortly before settlement), Samsung and other clients)