Defendant
1 case as defendant.
BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC is the U.S. manufacturing subsidiary of BMW AG (Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft), the Munich-based automaker listed on the Frankfurt/XETRA exchange (ticker BMW, DAX member). It sits under BMW of North America, LLC. Its plant is at 1400 Highway 101 South, Greer/Spartanburg, South Carolina. The site was announced in 1992 and began vehicle production in 1994. The company reports more than 11,000 employees at a campus exceeding 8 million square feet, with roughly $14.8 billion invested since 1992 — making it the largest BMW Group plant worldwide.
Operations. BMW Manufacturing is an assembly and stamping operation, not a marketer or IP holding entity. It builds BMW X3, X5, X6, X7 and XM Sports Activity Vehicles and Coupes, assembling about 1,500 vehicles per day (roughly 400,000 annually) across two shifts, with three body shops, two paint shops, two assembly halls, a press shop and logistics centers. About half its output is exported, to roughly 120 markets. Engines and transmissions are sourced from other BMW plants in Europe; the facility draws on hundreds of U.S. suppliers.
Litigation posture. The tracked data show one case, as defendant only (0 as plaintiff): an operating company targeted by an outside patent holder, not a two-way litigant or an NPE. The sole tracked suit was filed in February 2014 in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division — a historically plaintiff-friendly venue — before Judge Rodney Gilstrap.
Notable case. Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. BMW of North America, LLC et al., No. 2:14-cv-00106 (E.D. Tex.), was filed by Innovative Display Technologies LLC, an entity associated in litigation records with Acacia Research. IDT asserted "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" and automotive light-emitting panel patents ('547, '194, '177, '660, '974, '370, '816, '563, '956) against BMW vehicle displays and lighting. BMW moved to transfer venue to the District of New Jersey; the motion was denied in a March 30, 2015 opinion. The case was consolidated into a lead action (2:14-cv-00201, Hyundai et al.) and dismissed with prejudice on July 6, 2015, each side bearing its own costs.
IDT asserted the '563 Patent against BMW entities. The case was terminated; BMW filed IPR2015-00933. The narrative notes the complaint was also dated Apr. 7, 2014.