Plaintiff
2 cases as plaintiff.
American Calcar, Inc. (commonly "Calcar" or "ACI") is a privately held patent-assertion company founded in the mid-1990s by Michael L. Obradovich. European patent records list a Wilmington, Delaware address; its founders and inventors were based in Southern California (San Clemente, Irvine, Garden Grove), and no current headquarters is publicly documented. No revenue or headcount figures are publicly disclosed. Database profiles (Ex Parte, GoodIP) classify it as a non-practicing entity (NPE) and track roughly 120+ patent applications filed since 1997.
Operations. Calcar began as an operating business publishing "Quick Tips," condensed vehicle owner's-manual booklets sold to automakers for inclusion with new cars. After the late-1990s, it pivoted to patent licensing and assertion and today appears to have no product operations. Its portfolio centers on automotive multimedia and infotainment, GPS/navigation, vehicle information and control systems, and personal communication/positioning technologies, largely invented by Obradovich and colleagues.
Litigation posture. Calcar is a classic plaintiff-only NPE: 2 tracked cases, both as plaintiff, none as defendant, both in the Southern District of California (one was originally filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, and transferred to San Diego). It asserts its own internally developed portfolio (not an acquired one) against automotive OEMs rather than defending against suits.
Notable cases. American Calcar, Inc. v. BMW of North America, LLC (S.D. Cal., 2004) involved nine navigation/infotainment patents and settled with a license before trial. American Calcar, Inc. v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. et al. (filed 2006, E.D. Tex., transferred to S.D. Cal.) asserted roughly fifteen patents; after a jury verdict for Calcar on some patents, the district court held three patents (U.S. 6,330,497; 6,438,465; 6,542,795) unenforceable for inequitable conduct, and the Federal Circuit affirmed in 2014 (American Calcar v. American Honda, 768 F.3d 1185) — a notable post-Therasense decision. Calcar founder Obradovich also founded Silver State Intellectual Technologies, which acquired about 48 Calcar patents in 2011 and separately sued Garmin, TomTom, and automakers.
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Complaint filed March 25, 2004 expressly listing U.S. Patent No. 6,009,355 among twelve asserted patents. The docket reflects a June 1, 2005 claim construction order construing claims of the '355 patent and BMW motions for summary judgment of invalidity in February 2006; the case closed on April 19, 2006.
Related '355-family litigation in which the patents that went to trial and through final judgment were 6,330,497, 6,438,465, and 6,542,795, not 6,009,355 itself. The district court held those patents unenforceable for inequitable conduct for failure to disclose the 1996 Acura RL navigation system, and the Federal Circuit affirmed in American Calcar, Inc. v. American Honda Motor Co., 768 F.3d 1185 (Fed. Cir. 2014).