Company overview. Civiq Holdings, LLC is a privately held Delaware holding company whose operating business is Civiq Smartscapes, LLC (commonly "CIVIQ"), headquartered at 430 Fortune Blvd., Milford, MA. CIVIQ Smartscapes was founded in January 2015 as a spin-out of rugged-computing maker Comark LLC, and Civiq Holdings sits atop Civiq Smartscapes and Comark. The enterprise is a portfolio company of Boston private-equity firm JMC Capital Partners, held through funds including JMC Platform Fund I-A, JMP/Civiq Holdings, and JMC Mezzanine Fund II. No official headcount or revenue is published; third-party databases estimate 7–42 employees (PitchBook, Crunchbase, Kona Equity) and roughly $1–10M annual revenue, so figures are approximate.
Products / operations. CIVIQ designs and manufactures interactive "smart city" communications structures — connected kiosks and digital-out-of-home displays that provide public Wi-Fi, free calling, device charging, emergency services access, and advertising. Its product lines include the Link, Waypoint Plus/Indoor/X, Pronto/QSR, Totem, and Pedestal (MK470/550) display systems. Its best-known work is manufacturing the LinkNYC street kiosks for New York City through the CityBridge consortium (with Intersection and Qualcomm). In 2016 it acquired Toronto's Vertigo Digital Displays, whose thermal-management patents became relevant to the litigation below.
Patent-litigation posture. Civiq is an operating company, not a patent-assertion entity. In the tracked database it appears only once, as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 1 defendant case), defending its products in Delaware — not a plaintiff-friendly venue like the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable case. Manufacturing Resources International, Inc. v. Civiq Smartscapes, LLC et al., No. 1:17-cv-00269-RGA (D. Del., filed Mar. 14, 2017), was brought by MRI, a manufacturer of high-brightness LCD display assemblies, over patents covering display cooling. The court granted MRI partial summary judgment of infringement on some claims but granted Civiq partial summary judgment of no pre-suit damages, ruling MRI's virtual marking was not product-specific under 35 U.S.C. § 287. Civiq also petitioned for inter partes review of MRI's '572 patent (institution denied). The case settled and was dismissed in January 2020.