Untitled case

I'll research this case and the patent at issue.

Now I have the key fact — the plaintiff and defendant. Let me dig deeper.

Let me verify the patent's provenance, the defendant's profile, and any PTAB proceedings.

Case Overview — CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NextLink, No. 2:20-cv-00160 (E.D. Tex.)

Parties. The plaintiff, CommWorks Solutions, LLC, is a Georgia limited liability company with a registered office in Alpharetta, Georgia, described by Unified Patents as "an NPE and subsidiary of IP Investments Group LLC" (Unified Patents; complaint ¶3, via Ex Parte analysis of later CommWorks pleadings). CommWorks does not appear to make or sell any product; its business model is patent monetization of an acquired wireless-networking portfolio. Its assertion-side counsel in this case were Dmitry Kheyfits, Andrey Belenky and Brandon Gregory Moore, with Stafford Grigsby Helm Davis appearing as Texas counsel (docket entries 5–7; UniCourt docket summary). The defendant, AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC, doing business as "NextLink" (styled "Netlink" on the docket), is an operating rural broadband provider — a fixed-wireless and fiber ISP based in Texas — not a manufacturer. It is a distinct entity from the NPE-side plaintiffs in this campaign and, separately, was the subject of a 2024 FCC enforcement matter in which the agency upheld a $100,000 fine for discussing bidding strategy with AT&T during an infrastructure-funding auction (Law360, July 17, 2024). That FCC matter is unrelated to this patent suit; I note it only as background on the defendant.

Technology and patents. The suit was filed May 27, 2020, and RPX Insight records nine patents-in-suit and five accused products, with the case coded to the Networking market sector (RPX Insight, 2:20-cv-00160). The patent designated in this case record is U.S. Patent No. 7,177,285, "Time Based Wireless Access Provisioning" — application No. 10/961,959, filed October 8, 2004; issued February 13, 2007; inventors James A. Roskind and John D. Robinson; original assignee America Online, Incorporated (front page, reproduced in CommWorks's later pleadings, e.g. W.D. Tex. complaint attachment). In technical terms, the '285 claims an access point that monitors an operating parameter (power-on, or onset of transmission) of nearby wireless devices and provisions a device only if that event occurred within a designated time window after provisioning is activated at the AP — i.e., the "press the button, then join within the walk-time window" paradigm. CommWorks maps it to Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) push-button configuration, and in the broader campaign the portfolio also reaches Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM)/802.11-2007 quality-of-service and IEEE 802.3ah broadband provisioning (see, e.g., the CommWorks v. Adtran complaint, N.D. Ala. 5:23-cv-01327, asserting the '807, '285, '596, '979, '465 and RE44,904 patents). The asserted technology against NextLink therefore would have been the ISP's deployed broadband/Wi-Fi access equipment, CPE and related services rather than a discrete product line — one public complaint in this campaign (referencing an April 17, 2020 notice letter to NextLink, followed by an April 24, 2020 letter) accused Ciena devices running SAOS and Juniper devices running Junos OS supporting IEEE 802.3ah. I could not independently confirm from a copy of the 2:20-cv-00160 complaint itself which counts were pleaded against NextLink, and the RPX "nine patents" figure is unverified against the pleadings; treat both with caution.

Procedural posture and venue. The case was filed in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas and assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap (case assigned May 28, 2020; jury demand by plaintiff). Service was effected June 2, 2020 (Dkt. 4). Plaintiff filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal on July 17, 2020 (Dkt. 8), and Judge Gilstrap entered an Order Dismissing Case Without Prejudice on July 21, 2020 (Dkt. 9), with the AO 120 patent form filed at termination (Dkt. 10); RPX records the case as closed after 56 days in litigation (Docketbird docket; UniCourt; RPX). There was no answer, no claim construction, and no merits ruling. Venue mattered here for the usual reasons: in 2020 E.D. Tex./Marshall was still the leading patent-plaintiff district, Judge Gilstrap was among the most experienced patent trial judges, and a Texas-domiciled ISP with substantial in-district operations was an easy venue and personal-jurisdiction target — which plausibly explains why the campaign's early wave (this case and its same-day companion, CommWorks v. Consolidated Communications, No. 2:20-cv-00159) was filed there, before later CommWorks suits migrated to W.D. Tex. and other districts.

Why it's notable. Three things. First, the case is a small but representative tile in a coordinated NPE campaign: CommWorks filed or threatened suit across the Wi-Fi supply chain — ISPs (Consolidated, Skybeam, Mediacom, Cable One, EarthLink), chipmakers and CPE vendors (Broadcom, STMicroelectronics, u-blox, DrayTek, VTech, Ubee, Adtran) — asserting protocol-layer patents originating with America Online and other pre-standards networking R&D. The '285 itself appears in the Stanford NPE litigation database for Consolidated Communications (2:20-cv-00159), Charter (6:22-cv-00156) and Ubee (6:23-cv-00064) (Stanford NPE Database). Second, the '285 reads on a feature — WPS push-button configuration — that became near-ubiquitous in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED routers, APs and SoCs after 2007, making the theoretical royalty base enormous even though there is no indication these patents carry FRAND/SSO commitments. Third, the case is an IPR/reexam and fast-settlement illustration: the only well-documented USPTO challenge in this portfolio that I could verify is Unified Patents' ex parte reexamination of U.S. 6,832,249, granted December 23, 2021 (control no. 90/014,909) — I found no IPR or reexamination of the '285, and I cannot rule one out. The 56-day voluntary dismissal without prejudice implies an early license/settlement or a strategic refiling; no settlement terms or payment have been publicly reported, and because the dismissal was without prejudice CommWorks could (and elsewhere did) re-assert the same patents. Note also that the '285 front page carries an asterisk on its issue date, indicating a post-issuance certificate of some kind; and its nominal term (20 years from a 2003–2004 priority date) would have expired in the mid-2020s, which is consistent with later CommWorks complaints pleading infringement only "until [the patent's] expiry." Both points are inferences from the documents, not confirmed facts.

Sourcing note: PACER is paywalled and I could not review the full docket directly; the above relies on public docket aggregators (Docketbird, UniCourt, CourtListener), RPX Insight, Unified Patents, the Stanford NPE database, and complaints/petitions posted publicly. Dates, docket numbers, the judge, and the dismissal are well corroborated; the "nine patents-in-suit" figure, the precise accused NextLink products, any settlement, and any '285 post-issuance proceedings are not independently verified.

I'll research this case thoroughly. Let me start with several parallel searches.

I found the case identity. Let me dig deeper into the specific docket and the patent.

Case identification

CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NextLink, No. 2:20-cv-00160 (E.D. Tex., Marshall Div.), assigned to Judge Rodney Gilstrap. Cause of action pleaded as willful patent infringement; market sector networking. (RPX Insight; UniCourt docket extract)

The case metadata you supplied ("defendant/status not independently verified") can now be updated: defendant confirmed as AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NextLink; status = dismissed without prejudice, closed 2020-07-21. Note that your metadata lists only the '285 patent; the complaint as filed asserted a nine-patent portfolio, of which U.S. Patent No. 7,177,285 ("Time based wireless access provisioning") was one. (Patentpia case record)

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Chronological developments

Pre-suit notice (April 2020)

The complaint pleads a two-step pre-suit licensing approach: CommWorks sent a letter/email to NextLink on 2020-04-17 notifying it of the patents-in-suit and identifying exemplary infringed claims and accused products; a second letter/email on 2020-04-24 enclosed a proposed NDA and renewed the invitation to license. CommWorks pleaded that it had received no response as of filing. (Complaint ¶¶ 17–19, reproduced at RPX litigation document 13799070)

Filing and initial pleadings (2020-05-27)

• 2020-05-27 — Dkt. 1 (Complaint). Filed in E.D. Tex., Marshall Division. Nine patents asserted in nine counts, including the '285 patent, plus U.S. Pat. No. 7,027,465, 7,463,596, 7,911,979, 6,891,807, RE44,904, the '249 patent, and the '315 patent. Accused instrumentalities included Ciena devices running SAOS, Juniper devices running Junos OS, and NextLink's Calix GigaCenter wireless router / Wi-Fi services — with the Calix GigaCenter-type product being the natural mapping to the '285 "time based wireless access provisioning" claims. Jury trial demanded. (RPX litigation document 13799070; PatSnap later confirmed the same six-patent family grouping in a related CommWorks case.)
• Dkt. 3 — Corporate Disclosure Statement filed by CommWorks' lead counsel of record.
• 2020-06-02 — Dkt. 4 (Summons Returned Executed). AMG Technology Investment Group served; answer due 2020-06-23.
• Dkt. 5, 6, 7 — Notices of Attorney Appearance for CommWorks by Andrey Belenky, Brandon Gregory Moore, and Dmitry Kheyfits (all filed in July 2020).

Answer / counterclaims — none

No answer, no Rule 12 motion, and no counterclaims appear on the docket in the UniCourt extract before the case terminated. The answer deadline (2020-06-23) passed without a filing reflected, and the case ended 39 days after that deadline. This is a key procedural point: it means the plaintiff's dismissal was available as of right under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i) (dismissal before the opposing party serves an answer or a motion for summary judgment).

Pre-trial motions of substance — none

No motion to dismiss, no § 1404(a) transfer motion, no motion to stay pending IPR, and no summary-judgment practice occurred. There was no Markman proceeding; the case never reached the claim-construction stage (Gilstrap's docketing order for E.D. Tex. patent cases typically sets Markman roughly 9–12 months out, well after this case closed).

Discovery milestones — none

No scheduling order, no infringement/contentions exchange, and no discovery are reflected. The case lasted 56 days from filing to closure, per RPX. (RPX Insight)

Disposition (2020-07-17 → 2020-07-21)

• 2020-07-17 — Dkt. 8 (Notice of Voluntary Dismissal) filed by CommWorks (Belenky), with a proposed order attached.
• 2020-07-21 — Dkt. 9 (Order Dismissing Case Without Prejudice), signed by Judge Gilstrap.
• 2020-07-21 — Dkt. 10 (AO 120 Patent/Trademark Form) mailed to the Director of the USPTO at case termination.

No trial, no verdict, no JMOL/new-trial/fees motions, no § 285 exceptional-case ruling, no appeal, and no merits judgment. There is no reasoned opinion to cite — the only "ruling" is a docketed dismissal order. The absence of an answer plus the signed order is most consistent with a Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) voluntary dismissal (court-entered order for clerical closure and AO 120 reporting), though I could not retrieve the four corners of Dkt. 8/9 to confirm whether the defendant stipulated.

PTAB proceedings

I found no IPR, PGR, or CBM petition directed at U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,285, and none could have affected this case — it closed roughly two months after filing and before any answer, so there was nothing to stay. This is a verification gap rather than a confirmed negative: my PTAB searches were cut short, so treat "no IPR on the '285 patent" as unconfirmed. What is confirmed is that no stay motion was ever filed in this case.

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Why the case matters (strategic read)

1. It was a mass-filing campaign, not a stand-alone suit. The '285 patent was asserted on 2020-05-27 alongside sister patents in at least two E.D. Tex. complaints filed the same day — Case No. 2:20-cv-00159 (CommWorks v. Consolidated Communications Holdings) and No. 2:20-cv-00160 (this case). (IPWatchdog Patent Filings Roundup, 2020-06-03; Stanford NPE Litigation Database, patent 7177285) CommWorks is identified as an IP Investments Group–affiliated NPE.

2. The '285 patent is a serial repeater. The Stanford NPE database ties the '285 patent to later CommWorks suits including 6:22-cv-00156 (W.D. Tex., Charter Communications) and 6:23-cv-00064 (W.D. Tex., Ubee Interactive Holding); Patentpia's litigation tally shows ~22 suits on the '285 patent with the most recent assertion on 2023-11-03. A related CommWorks campaign against Adtran (N.D. Ala., No. 5:23-cv-01327) also listed the '285 patent among six asserted patents and likewise ended in voluntary dismissal without prejudice (case closed April 2024). (PatSnap case summary) I'd treat the PatSnap item as secondary/AI-assisted and not authoritative.

3. The dismissal pattern is the story. A 56-day, pre-answer, without-prejudice dismissal following an unanswered NDA overture is the classic signature of (a) a quick confidential license, or (b) a deliberate re-set — dismissing to re-file in a preferred forum or after plaintiff reassessed claim-construction risk. Because the dismissal was without prejudice, the '285 patent remained fully available for re-assertion, which is exactly what happened through 2023. Note the related 2022 roundup showing CommWorks re-filing on the same family against Technicolor (1:22-cv-02827) and D-Link (6:22-cv-00806). (IPWatchdog roundup, 2022-07-29)

4. Zero precedential value. No claim construction, no invalidity ruling, no damages, no fee award. Anyone assessing '285 exposure must look to the other CommWorks cases (W.D. Tex. Charter and Ubee matters, and the Adtran N.D. Ala. action) for any substantive rulings.

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Explicit verification gaps

• Docket depth. My docket detail comes from RPX and UniCourt extracts, not a direct PACER pull. I could not confirm: whether an answer was ever filed (which determines the precise Rule 41 mechanism); whether dismissal was by notice of right, stipulation, or court order on motion; and whether any plaintiff-side extension motion exists between 2020-06-23 and 2020-07-17.
• Defense counsel. No defendant-side appearance of record is reflected in the sources I retrieved, consistent with the case ending pre-answer. I will not guess at defense counsel.
• PTAB. No IPR/PGR on the '285 patent was surfaced, but I could not exhaustively check the PTAB docket. Recommend a direct PTAB Patent Trial & Appeal Board docket search on 7,177,285 plus the sibling family members ('465, '596, '979, '807, RE44,904) before relying on "no IPR."
• Counsel firm attribution. UniCourt's party/attorney block is garbled; the names Belenky, Kheyfits, and Moore are confirmed as CommWorks-side appearances from the docket entries themselves (Dkt. 5–7), but I cannot reliably attribute the Dkt. 3 corporate disclosure filing to a specific firm.

Bottom line: The single "key legal development" in 2:20-cv-00160 is that it never developed — it was a portfolio-wide, pre-suit-negotiation-driven complaint that CommWorks voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on 2020-07-21 before NextLink answered, leaving the '285 patent unadjudicated and free to be re-asserted in the later W.D. Tex. and other CommWorks campaigns.

I'll research this case to identify plaintiff's counsel. Let me start with searches on the docket and patent.

Now let me find the specific docket and complaint for this 2020 case.

The case is CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NetLink (2:20-cv-00160, E.D. Tex., Judge Gilstrap), filed 5/27/2020 and dismissed without prejudice 7/21/2020. Now let me pin down the counsel and their firms.

Bottom line

This is CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NetLink (or NextLink), No. 2:20-cv-00160 (E.D. Tex., Marshall Div., Judge Rodney Gilstrap, filed May 27, 2020). The plaintiff is CommWorks Solutions, LLC (an NPE/acquired-patent asserter; the '285 patent traces to the ADC Telecommunications/CommScope lineage). The case was short-lived — voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on July 21, 2020 (Dkt. 8 notice of voluntary dismissal; Dkt. 9 order), about 56 days after filing — so the universe of plaintiff's counsel of record is small and there is no formal "lead counsel" designation on the docket.

Plaintiff's counsel of record (CommWorks Solutions, LLC)

Appearances reflected on the docket

• Dkt. 1 — Complaint for Patent Infringement (filed by Stafford Davis).
• Dkt. 2–3 — AO 120 and Corporate Disclosure Statement (Stafford Davis).
• Dkt. 4 — Summons returned executed (defendant served 6/2/2020, answer due 6/23/2020).
• Dkt. 5/6/7 — Notices of appearance: Andrey Belenky, Brandon Gregory Moore, Dmitry Kheyfits (all June 16, 2020).
• Dkt. 8 — Notice of voluntary dismissal (Belenky).
• Dkt. 9–10 — Order dismissing case without prejudice (7/21/2020).

Caveats on sourcing (please read)

• What is well sourced: the case caption, plaintiff identity, Judge Gilstrap, filing date (5/27/2020), dismissal without prejudice (7/21/2020), the four plaintiff attorneys, and Stafford Davis's firm/address/bar number. These come from the Justia/Docket Alarm and UniCourt docket transcriptions of 2:20-cv-00160, the RPX Insight case page (closed 7/21/2020), and CommWorks briefing signature blocks in the related W.D. Tex. and IPR matters.
• What I could not independently verify: the firm affiliations for Belenky, Kheyfits, and Moore. My search budget was exhausted before I could confirm them against firm websites, PACER attorney records, or State Bar listings, and I will not guess. If you need those firmed up, the fastest authorities are the PACER attorney/party query for this docket, the Texas and New York bar directories, and the signature block of the Dkt. 1 complaint (available via PACER/RECAP).
• No sealed filings / no missing appearances: nothing in this docket appears sealed, and because the case was dismissed roughly eight weeks after filing, there is no later-appearing counsel, no substitution of counsel, and no counsel for a counterclaimant.
• Note the defendant's d/b/a is rendered inconsistently across sources ("Netlink" vs. "NextLink"); the substance is the same entity.

If it would help, I can next pull the Dkt. 1 complaint signature block itself (to lock down the exact firm names for Belenky/Kheyfits/Moore) and cross-check whether those same attorneys were the filing counsel in the companion CommWorks cases (2:20-cv-00158/00159).

I'll research this case. Let me start with the docket and patent.

Case identified: CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NextLink. Let me pull the docket and counsel.

Let me verify the full docket (especially any defense filings) and search for NextLink's outside counsel.

Bottom line

No attorney for the defendant appears as counsel of record in this case. The docket for CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a NextLink, No. 2:20-cv-00160 (E.D. Tex., Judge Rodney Gilstrap) shows appearances filed only on behalf of the plaintiff, and the case was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice roughly two months after filing — before any defense-side filing was ever entered.

I want to flag this clearly rather than populate the requested table with invented names: I found zero Rule 83.1/LR CV-5 notice-of-appearance entries, answers, Rule 12 motions, or corporate disclosure statements filed by or for AMG/NextLink in this docket. The following is what the record actually shows, plus the limits of that record.

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Case identification (correcting the placeholder metadata)

The prior summary's "untitled / defendant not verified" placeholder can now be replaced: the defendant is AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC, a Texas entity doing business as NextLink (Nextlink Internet, a fixed-wireless ISP).

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Counsel of record — defendant

None. There was no defense appearance in this docket.

• Summons returned executed: AMG served June 2, 2020; answer due June 23, 2020 (Dkt. 4).
• The docket contains no answer, no motion, and no appearance by any attorney for AMG/NextLink.
• CommWorks filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal on July 17, 2020 (Dkt. 8), and Judge Gilstrap entered the Order Dismissing Case Without Prejudice on July 21, 2020 (Dkt. 9), with the AO-120 termination form filed the same day (Dkt. 10).

So the requested deliverable — names, roles, firms, offices, and experience lines for defense counsel — cannot be produced from this docket without fabrication. The practical explanation is timing: the plaintiff's complaint recites that it sent pre-suit licensing letters on April 17 and April 24, 2020 and received no response (Compl. ¶¶ 17–19, available via RPX litigation documents), and the case was pulled down 56 days in. A defendant resolved a case that fast typically either (a) settled/licensed before retaining and appearing through litigation counsel, or (b) had counsel engaged only for pre-suit/licensing correspondence that never ripened into an appearance. Nothing in the public record identifies who, if anyone, advised AMG.

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Plaintiff's counsel of record (for completeness and to confirm the asymmetry)

Every appearance in the docket is for CommWorks Solutions, LLC:

Kheyfits Belenky LLP (formerly Kheyfits Belenky, and associated with the Kayfits/Belenky group) is the recurring CommWorks litigation shop; the same team appears in the parallel CommWorks campaigns (e.g., CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. Comcast Cable, No. 6:21-cv-00366-ADA (W.D. Tex.)).

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Caveats and sourcing

• The docket entries above come from secondary aggregators — UniCourt, Justia Dockets, and RPX Insight — which mirror PACER for this case; UniCourt's capture notes the case "was last updated from U.S. District Courts on 07/26/2020." I did not independently pull the live PACER docket sheet, so I cannot rule out a sealed filing or an appearance that the aggregators failed to capture. If you need a certified answer for this specific question, the authoritative step is a direct PACER run on 2:20-cv-00160 (E.D. Tex.), docket all-entries report.
• If a defense notice of appearance exists in this case, it is not in any public secondary source I could reach, and I decline to name a firm on inference. The temptation would be to attribute AMG's defense to counsel who appeared for co-defendants in the sibling CommWorks 2020 cases (the PTACTS docket excerpt for the consolidated 2:20-cv-00158 action shows Cable One's counsel as Brandon Chen, Robinson Vu, and Jace Yarbrough, and Consolidated Communications' counsel as Jack Daniel Kitchen and Melissa Richards Smith). Those are different defendants in a different case and must not be attributed to AMG/NextLink.
• The '285 patent was later asserted against other parties (e.g., CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. Technicolor Connected Home USA LLC, No. 1:22-cv-02827 (N.D. Ga.); CommWorks Solutions, LLC v. STMicroelectronics, Inc., No. 7:25-cv-00363 (W.D. Tex., filed Aug. 25, 2025)), and CommWorks patents drew PTAB/ex parte reexamination activity by Unified Patents (represented by Raghav Bajaj of Haynes and Boone, LLP, with in-house counsel Ashraf Fawzy and Michelle Aspen) — none of which involves AMG/NextLink as a party.

Net answer to your question: for this case, the defendant-side counsel field is empty on the public record; the correct entry is "no counsel of record appeared," not a list of attorneys.