Defendant
5 cases as defendant.
Sprint Spectrum L.P. (also written Sprint Spectrum, L.P.; converted to Sprint Spectrum LLC in 2021) was a Delaware limited partnership with its principal office at 6200/6500 Sprint Parkway, Overland Park, Kansas. It was an operating subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, itself an indirect subsidiary chain running through Sprint Spectrum Holding Company, LLC and Sprint Communications, Inc. (FCC ownership filings; Rhode Island Secretary of State records). Sprint Corporation was a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier founded in 1937 out of the Brown Telephone Company, majority-owned by SoftBank Group and publicly traded (NYSE: S) before its April 1, 2020 merger with T-Mobile US. Sprint reported roughly 28,500 employees and about $33.6 billion in revenue for fiscal 2019 (SEC filings; Statista). After the merger closed, Sprint became a wholly owned T-Mobile subsidiary and the Sprint brand was retired on August 2, 2020; Sprint Spectrum L.P. was converted to Sprint Spectrum LLC in June 2021 and remains an indirect wholly owned T-Mobile USA subsidiary.
Operations: Sprint Spectrum was a licensed wireless carrier entity — it held FCC spectrum and international Section 214 authorizations and provided voice, text, and LTE/4G data service to retail, prepaid, business, and wholesale customers across the United States. It also sold and leased handsets, tablets, hotspots, and modems used on Sprint's network. Sprint's prepaid business (Boost Mobile) was divested to DISH Network as part of the T-Mobile transaction.
Litigation posture: Sprint Spectrum appears in the tracked database only as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 3 defendant cases) — the classic profile of an operating carrier targeted by patent assertion. All three tracked matters were filed December 3, 2018 by Sol IP, LLC in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, a historically plaintiff-friendly venue.
Notable context: Sol IP, LLC is characterized as a non-practicing entity; its asserted LTE and Wi-Fi portfolio was acquired from Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and Unified Patents and the Stanford NPE Litigation Database both list Sol IP as an acquired-patent asserter. The three Sprint-side dockets were consolidated into the lead case Sol IP, LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, No. 2:18-cv-00526 (E.D. Tex.), alongside parallel suits against Verizon. Sprint Communications Company L.P., Sprint Solutions, Inc., and Sprint Spectrum L.P. were jointly named; Ericsson Inc. and Nokia of America intervened as equipment vendors.
Filed December 3, 2018 in E.D. Tex. Marshall Division and consolidated with Sol IP's AT&T lead case. The asserted-patent list for this docket includes US 10,090,894; the case was terminated on May 20, 2020 as dismissed - other.
Lead case in the Dec. 3, 2018 Sol IP E.D. Tex. campaign, filed in Marshall before Judge Schroeder and Magistrate Judge Payne. The consolidated caption named AT&T, Cellco/Verizon, and Sprint entities as defendants, with Ericsson and Nokia intervening; the campaign asserted 27 patents, including US 9,900,067. Closed on 2020-05-20; disposition not stated.
One of three Dec. 3, 2018 Sol IP cases in E.D. Tex. Marshall against Sprint entities. It was consolidated into lead case 2:18-cv-00526 and closed with the lead case; the campaign included US 9,900,067.
Consolidated patent infringement action asserting US 10,080,204 against AT&T Mobility, Sprint entities, and Verizon Wireless. Consolidated with 2:18-cv-00527-RWS-RSP (Sprint) and 2:18-cv-00528-RWS-RSP (Verizon); Ericsson Inc. and Nokia of America Corporation intervened. Dismissed (Dismissed - Other) on May 20, 2020.
Federal Circuit appeal from the Sprint district court case. The court affirmed denial of Sprint's post-trial motions (rehearing denied May 8, 2017), and later affirmed the district court's application of collateral estoppel to vacate the $30M Sprint judgment, 757 F. App'x 980 (Fed. Cir. 2019).