Unified Patents Inc.

Unified Patents Inc. is a private company founded in 2012 that describes itself as a member-based organization focused on deterring patent assertions from non-practicing entities (NPEs), often called "patent trolls." Headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area, the company was founded by Kevin Jakel and Brian Hinman. Unified Patents is privately held, having received a growth investment from WestView Capital Partners in 2019. While specific revenue figures are not publicly disclosed, some data providers estimate annual revenue in the $3.8 million to $50 million range, with an employee count of approximately 36.

The company's primary service is to protect its members against what it deems to be frivolous or invalid patent litigation initiated by NPEs. Unified Patents operates by creating "zones" based on specific technologies like cloud storage, content delivery, and electronic payments. Members, which range from startups to large corporations like Google and NetApp, pay annual fees to join these zones. In return, Unified monitors NPE activity and proactively challenges the validity of patents being asserted by NPEs, primarily by filing inter partes reviews (IPRs) at the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The company's stated policy is to never pay NPEs for licenses or settlements, as it believes doing so encourages further litigation.

Unified Patents' litigation posture is exclusively as a plaintiff or petitioner, consistent with its business model of challenging patent validity. The provided case data, showing it as a plaintiff in a PTAB proceeding, aligns perfectly with its operational focus. The company's goal is to increase costs and risks for NPEs asserting patents of questionable quality. It files a significant number of challenges against patents owned by various NPEs. This strategy is intended to deter NPEs from targeting its members.

The tracked case, Unified Patents Inc. v. Shipping and Transit LLC, is an example of Unified's core activity: proactively challenging an NPE's patents at the PTAB. The organization's model is to act as the petitioner on behalf of its members, who may be the targets of the patent assertions. In some cases, Unified's members have been identified by the PTAB as real parties-in-interest in its IPR challenges. This structure allows companies to collectively oppose patents asserted by NPEs without having to engage in direct, individual litigation.