Uniloc Luxembourg S.A.

Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. is a public limited liability company based in Luxembourg, and part of a web of related entities including Uniloc USA, Inc., collectively known as "Uniloc". The original company was founded in Australia in 1992 as a private software company. While it initially developed and sold its own technology, its primary business is now patent assertion. Uniloc has been described by industry observers and critics as a prolific patent assertion entity (PAE), or "patent troll".

Uniloc does not appear to manufacture products or provide commercial services. Instead, it acquires large portfolios of patents from other companies—including IBM, Philips, and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)—and generates revenue by licensing and litigating them. Its asserted patents cover a wide range of technologies, including software product activation, wireless messaging, cloud computing, and mobile device features. Court filings from the 2012-2017 timeframe state that Uniloc researches, develops, and licenses information security technology, but its primary activity is widely recognized as litigation.

The company is a non-practicing entity (NPE) that functions exclusively as a plaintiff in patent litigation. As shown in the provided case list, Uniloc has a 100% plaintiff record in tracked cases, with zero appearances as a defendant. It has filed hundreds of lawsuits, frequently in the Eastern District of Texas, a venue historically favorable to patent plaintiffs. Its litigation has been reportedly backed by third-party litigation funder Fortress Investment Group, a relationship that has led to legal challenges over Uniloc's standing to bring suit.

Uniloc is well-known for its high-profile litigation campaigns against major technology companies. An early, notable case was its lawsuit against Microsoft over a software anti-piracy patent, which resulted in a $388 million jury verdict in 2009 that was later vacated on appeal before the parties settled. That case is famous for the Federal Circuit's rejection of the "25 percent rule," a long-standing guideline for calculating patent damages. As reflected in the case data, Uniloc has also sued Kaspersky Lab, Twitter, Electronic Arts, and Mojang AB, the creator of the game Minecraft.