Plaintiff
4 cases as plaintiff.
Blackbird Tech LLC, which also operates as Blackbird Technologies, is a privately held patent assertion entity founded in 2014. The company was established by former patent litigators from large law firms, including WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis. While a legal filing from 2019 lists a principal place of business in Concord, Massachusetts, the company is registered as a Delaware limited liability company. Blackbird Tech's business model is centered on acquiring patents and monetizing them through litigation, often representing individual inventors or small companies.
Blackbird Tech is a non-practicing entity (NPE) that does not manufacture products or provide services. Its operations consist of purchasing patents or partnering with patent owners to sue larger companies for alleged infringement. The company's staff includes in-house litigators, which it states allows it to pursue infringement claims at a reduced cost compared to traditional law firms. Blackbird has asserted patents across a wide range of technologies, including LED lighting, fitness trackers, e-discovery software, computer security, and consumer products like face sponges.
As the provided case data indicates, Blackbird Tech acts exclusively as a plaintiff in patent litigation. The company has filed over 100 lawsuits since its inception in 2014. It frequently files its cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a common venue for patent disputes. Courts and legal analysts have characterized Blackbird's model as that of a patent assertion entity (PAE), and it has been noted for its prolific filing activity. In some instances, its litigation conduct has been deemed "meritless" and "frivolous" by courts, leading to orders for Blackbird to pay the defendants' attorney fees.
The case list shows Blackbird filed a series of lawsuits on the same day in August 2016 against competitors in the fitness technology sector: Fitbit, Inc., Garmin International, Inc., TomTom, Inc., and Wahoo Fitness, LLC. These suits alleged infringement of patents related to fitness tracker technology. Blackbird later announced a settlement with Garmin in December 2017. The company has also engaged in high-profile litigation with other major technology companies, including Cloudflare, HP, and Netflix. The suit against Cloudflare, in particular, drew public attention when Cloudflare initiated a "bounty" program to find prior art to invalidate Blackbird's patents.
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This patent infringement lawsuit was likely stayed pending the outcome of related inter partes review proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
Blackbird Technologies filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Garmin, which the parties settled in December 2017.
The outcome of this case is not specified in the narrative, but it was likely influenced by parallel PTAB proceedings.
This infringement case was likely stayed pending the resolution of the PTAB challenges initiated by the defendant, Wahoo Fitness.