Defendant
1 case as defendant.
Master Lock Company LLC (commonly "Master Lock," also styled The Master Lock Company) is an American lock and security-products manufacturer founded in 1921 by Harry Soref in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: FBIN). Master Lock's corporate headquarters moved from Oak Creek, Wisconsin to parent FBIN's Deerfield, Illinois campus in 2025. Master Lock's own headcount and revenue are not separately disclosed; FBIN reported roughly $4.6 billion in FY2024 net sales and about 10,000–11,000 employees (Fortune Brands 10-K/press release; Yahoo Finance).
Products / operations. Master Lock manufactures and markets padlocks and security products for consumer, commercial, and industrial users: keyed and combination padlocks, cable and bicycle locks, built-in locker locks, door hardware, automotive/trailer/towing locks, portable safes, and lockout/tagout safety devices. Sister brands within FBIN's security portfolio include SentrySafe (fire-resistant safes and security containers), Yale residential, and August; the company also sells Bluetooth/connected locks and electronic access-control systems. Distribution runs through retailers, industrial and locksmith distributors, OEMs, e-commerce, and masterlock.com. Manufacturing at its Milwaukee plant ended in March 2024 (Fortune Brands; Milwaukee/spectrumnews reports).
Patent-litigation posture. Master Lock is an operating company, not an NPE. In the tracked data it appears only as a defendant (1 case, 0 as plaintiff), consistent with defending against an outside patent assertion rather than asserting its own portfolio. The single tracked case was filed in the plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas (Marshall Division).
Notable case. Smart Lock, LLC v. Master Lock Company LLC, No. 2:16-cv-01018 (E.D. Tex., filed Sept. 16, 2016; Judge Rodney Gilstrap). Plaintiff Smart Lock, LLC — a Tyler, Texas entity that filed serial patent suits against lock and smart-lock makers (including Spectrum Brands/Kwikset, Schlage, and Alfred International) — asserted U.S. Patent No. 7,012,503 on electronic key devices and access-code management. A companion suit against Schlage Lock was filed the same day (Southeast Texas Record; UniCourt dockets). I could not verify Smart Lock, LLC's status via Unified Patents or RPX; its plaintiff-only filing pattern is characteristic of a non-practicing entity, but that characterization is not independently confirmed here.
Smart Lock, LLC filed suit against Master Lock Company LLC et al. in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, asserting US 7,012,503 and seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial. Final disposition was not confirmed.