Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Display Co.

I'll research this case across the available sources.

Key finding already: RPX assigns 1:15-cv-01220 to Lenovo, while the metadata says LG Display. Let me dig deeper on the docket, the IPRs, and the patents.

Case Overview & Background

Parties. Both plaintiffs are patent-assertion vehicles in the Acacia Research Corporation family. Delaware Display Group LLC (DDG) and Innovative Display Technologies LLC (IDT) filed this case together; IDT launched the underlying campaign in June 2013 and DDG was formed as a new Acacia subsidiary to co-assert an eighth patent in the first wave of suits filed December 31, 2013 (RPX Insight, Jan. 9, 2014). The asserted portfolio is a "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" family originally assigned to Solid State Opto Ltd. and naming Jeffery R. Parker (with Gregory A. Coghlan and Robert M. Ezell on the '973) as inventor; RPX reports the litigated patents were "previously owned by Rambus and transferred to Acacia in March 2013" (RPX, Jan. 9, 2014). LG Display Co., Ltd. is a Korean manufacturer of LCD/OLED display panels (the world's largest panel producer by capacity; LG Electronics holds 37.9% of its voting stock, per LG Display's SEC Form 20-F); LG Display America, Inc. is its U.S. sales/support arm. LG Display is both a panel supplier and a consumer of backlight technology, which is what drew the assertion. Note the caption nuance: in the parallel 2015 refiling the LG-side defendants were LG Electronics, Inc., LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc., [LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc.](/litigations/by-defendant/LG%20Electronics%20Mobilecomm%20U.S.A.%2C%20Inc.), LG Display Co., Ltd., and LG Display America, Inc. (Justia docket 1:15-cv-01221).

Accused technology and patents. The accused technology is LCD backlighting — edge-lit light-guide/backlight units that channel LED light into a display panel through a patterned array of light-extracting deformities. The complaints define the accused products as backlights for LCD displays and, per Law360's coverage, the products at issue were LCD panels and downstream devices (TVs, monitors, notebooks, phones) sold by LG, Lenovo, and VIZIO (the August 2016 summary-judgment briefing turned on whether DDG had shown the technology was used "in hundreds of their products," Law360, Aug. 29, 2016).

Three patents are asserted, all titled "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" and all tracing to a common ultimate parent, U.S. 5,613,751 (1995 priority):

• U.S. 7,384,177 (issued June 10, 2008; sole inventor Parker) — a light-emitting panel assembly in which light from a source at the panel edge is redistributed across an emitting surface.
• U.S. 7,404,660 (issued July 29, 2008; sole inventor Parker) — a related panel-assembly claim set directed to the light-source/optical-conductor/deformity arrangement that spreads light out of the panel.
• U.S. 7,434,973 (issued Oct. 14, 2008; Parker, Coghlan, Ezell) — the backlight-specific line; the litigated claim 1 required "a pattern of individual light extracting deformities associated with respective light sources," with the deformities' density/size/depth "greatest at the approximate midpoints between adjacent pairs of light sources," a limitation disputed on both priority and anticipation grounds in the IPR (IPR2015-00506 oral hearing record). Family-level descriptions are well sourced; I did not independently verify each claim's exact scope, so treat the per-patent sketches as family-level rather than claim-by-claim.

Procedural posture, venue, and why it matters. Filed December 30, 2015 in the District of Delaware, Wilmington Division, before Judge Richard G. Andrews (the same judge who handled the first wave). Delaware was the natural venue: the 2013 wave (C.A. Nos. 13-2106 to 13-2112, including DDG/IDT v. LG Electronics, No. 13-cv-2109-RGA) was already there, the LG entities had Delaware subsidiaries and distribution, and D. Del. was then the nation's leading patent docket. Judge Andrews found the '660 patent indefinite, held claims of the '547 patent obvious, and rejected the plaintiffs' broad construction of "associated with" in the '973 patent, and then issued a claim-construction ruling that significantly favored the defendants (221 F. Supp. 3d 495 (D. Del. 2016)).

This case is a refiling forced by IPR proceedings, which is the notable structural feature. LG challenged the three asserted patents at the PTAB — IPR2015-00489 ('177, LG Electronics v. IDT, instituted July 13, 2015), IPR2015-00487 ('660), and IPR2015-00506 ('973, LG Display v. DDG, instituted July 6, 2015) — with the Board in the '973 proceeding finding claims 1–5 likely anticipated by Shinohara and preliminarily holding the '973 claims not entitled to the '751 parent's filing date (RPX PTAB record). In October 2015 Judge Andrews told the plaintiffs he would stay the earlier cases unless they dropped the three IPR-subject patents; they did so without prejudice, the stay motion was denied, and on December 30, 2015 IDT/DDG refiled against LG, Lenovo, and VIZIO — expressly agreeing in the new complaints to stay the refiled suits pending resolution of the instituted IPRs (RPX Insight, Dec. 29, 2015).

Notable because: (1) it is a textbook example of IPR linkage reshaping an NPE campaign — the patents were pulled out of one case, re-filed in another, and the new case was born with a pre-agreed stay; the refiling was effectively a placeholder to preserve damages exposure while the PTAB decided validity. (2) It illustrates Acacia's assertion model and the provenance chain of a consumer-electronics portfolio (Parker/Solid State Opto → Rambus → Acacia sub). (3) The accused technology sat at the center of the global LCD supply chain — LG Display, Lenovo, and VIZIO were all targeted in coordinated filings (the same-day cases were 1:15-cv-01221 against the LG entities, closed April 12, 2017, and 1:15-cv-01222 against VIZIO; RPX records 1:15-cv-01220 as closing May 10, 2017). (4) It resolved quietly: Law360 reported on April 10, 2017 that Lenovo and LG settled the display-backlight suits, and LG Display's quarterly filing states the parties "reached settlements in principle regarding the above-mentioned patent litigations through mediation" in the quarter ended March 31, 2017 (Law360 case page). Settlement terms are not public.

Sourcing caveat on the docket number. Public sources consistently assign 1:15-cv-01220 to Delaware Display Group LLC et al. v. Lenovo Group Ltd. et al., and 1:15-cv-01221 to the LG-side defendants (RPX: "On December 30, 2015 ... new cases against Lenovo (1:15-cv-01220), LG Electronics (1:15-cv-01221), and VIZIO (1:15-cv-01222)"). I have followed the case metadata captioned Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Display Co., 1:15-cv-01220, as instructed, but flag that if the LG Display assertion is the subject here, the corresponding public docket is most likely 1:15-cv-01221 — the two filings are materially identical in patents, technology, judge, and outcome, so the substantive analysis is unaffected. I could not verify a separate LG-Display-only Delaware docket numbered 1220.

I'll research this case systematically, starting with the docket and party background.

Initial searches reveal important complexity: this case appears related to a family of Acacia/DDG filings. Let me dig into the specific dockets and PTAB outcomes.

Key Legal Developments & Outcome — Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Display Co., No. 1:15-cv-01220 (D. Del.)

Important threshold caveat on the case identity. The metadata you gave me (caption, case number, patents) is authoritative for my purposes, and I use it below. But public docket aggregators do not line up cleanly with it, and that matters for tracing developments: RPX Insight lists 1:15-cv-01220 as Delaware Display Group LLC et al. v. Lenovo Group Ltd. et al. (closed 2017-05-10), while it lists 1:15-cv-01221 as Delaware Display Group LLC et al. v. LG Electronics, Inc., et al. (closed 2017-04-12, defendants including LG Display Co., Ltd. and LG Display America, Inc.). See https://insight.rpxcorp.com/litigation/dedce-58569-delaware-display-group-v-lenovo-group and https://insight.rpxcorp.com/litigation/dedce-58570-delaware-display-group-v-lg-electronics. The 2015-12-30 filings were a three-case campaign by the same Acacia plaintiffs (01220 / 01221 / 01222) asserting the same three patents. RPX's contemporaneous account specifically ties 01220 to Lenovo. Because the docket numbering in your metadata conflicts with the public dockets, I have treated the three filings as a companion family and flagged where a development attaches to a specific docket number. This is the single biggest source-verification gap in this memo.

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1. Parties, patents, and posture

• Plaintiffs / patent-owner side: Delaware Display Group LLC ("DDG") and, in the related filings, Innovative Display Technologies LLC ("IDT") — both Acacia Research NPE subsidiaries. The three asserted patents trace to inventor Jeffery R. Parker, and to Lumitex-origin backlight technology.
• Defendants: LG Display Co., Ltd. and LG Display America, Inc. (and, in the companion filings, LG Electronics, Inc., LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc., LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc.; Lenovo; VIZIO).
• Patents-in-suit: U.S. 7,384,177 ('177), U.S. 7,404,660 ('660), and U.S. 7,434,973 ('973) — all titled "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies."
• Judge: Richard G. Andrews (D. Del.).
• Nature: patent infringement, 35 U.S.C. § 271; willfulness alleged; jury demand.

Why the case existed at all. The 2015 complaints were filed only because of a loss in earlier Delaware litigation. In October 2015, Judge Andrews agreed to stay the earlier DDG/IDT actions entirely unless the plaintiffs dropped, without prejudice, their claims on the '177, '660 and '973 patents — each of which was already under an instituted IPR that LG had filed. DDG/IDT dropped those patents, Judge Andrews then denied the stay, and the earlier cases proceeded. DDG/IDT responded by filing fresh, separate complaints on the dropped patents on 2015-12-30 — expressly agreeing in those complaints to stay the new cases pending resolution of the instituted IPRs. (RPX, "Acacia Subs File New Complaints Asserting LCD Patents They Were Forced to Drop in Related Cases," 2015-12-29: https://insight.rpxcorp.com/news/4389.)

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2. Chronology

2.1 Pre-history: the first Delaware actions (2013-12-31)

DDG and IDT sued LG in D. Del. on 2013-12-31 (dockets referenced in the PTAB record as 1:13-cv-02108 and 1:13-cv-02109). This matters because the PTAB petitions and the stay fight that produced the 2015 case arose out of the 2013 action, and because a standing/assignment dispute over Parker-era assignments was litigated there (see the opinion excerpt at Delaware Display Group LLC v. [LG], D. Del. 1:13-cv-02108, D.I. 351, addressing whether the IPAA/IPCAA and Patent Assignments conveyed the right to sue for pre-assignment (past) infringement).

2.2 LG's IPR petitions (2014-12-23 to 2014-12-30)

LG Display filed three IPRs on the three asserted patents:

Sources: IPR2015-00487 Institution Decision (https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/PTAB/IPR2015-00487/.../Decision_Granting_Institution-8-Decision_Institution_of_Inter_Partes_Review.pdf); IPR2015-00506 Institution Decision, 2015-07-06 (https://ptabtrialblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IPR2015-00506-Granting-Institution-20150706.pdf); RPX PTAB page https://litigation.rpxcorp.com/ptab/2571.

Notable rulings inside these institution decisions:

• IPR2015-00506 ('973): The Board rejected Patent Owner's real-party-in-interest attack (LG Electronics Inc.'s 37.9% stake and shared counsel/experts were insufficient to show "control"), and held the '973 claims were not entitled to the 1995 grandparent priority date — for that proceeding, the effective date was the '973 application itself. Grounds based on the § 102(b) published application and on Pelka+Funamoto, Shinohara+Yoshikawa, and Hooker+Mizobe were denied institution for insufficient articulated reasoning to combine. Nation Law Review summary: https://natlawreview.com/node/49327/printable/pdf.
• IPR2015-00487 ('660): Institution on the Oe+Etsuo obviousness ground; parallel challenges included IPR2014-01094 (not instituted), IPR2015-00363 (terminated), and IPR2015-00495.

2.3 IPR joinder (2015-08-05 → 2016-02-05)

IPR2015-01666 (petitioner LG Electronics, Inc.) was filed 2015-08-05 against the '973 patent, instituted 2016-02-05, and joined to IPR2015-00506 by Board order the same day. (PTAB documents indexed at https://ocr.docketalarm.com/search/?q=patent:(7434973); IPR2015-00506 Paper 24 / IPR2015-01666 Paper 10.)

2.4 The stay fight and the new complaints (Oct. 2015 → 2015-12-30)

• Oct. 2015: Judge Andrews conditions relief in the 2013 cases on plaintiffs dropping the three IPR-encumbered patents; plaintiffs drop them; the stay motion is then denied.
• 2015-12-30: DDG/IDT file the new complaints (01220 / 01221 / 01222), each asserting '177, '660 and '973, each expressly consenting to a stay pending the instituted IPRs. This is the filing your metadata identifies as 1:15-cv-01220.

2.5 Pleadings, answers, counterclaims

I could not verify the answer/counterclaim record for 1:15-cv-01220 from the sources available to me (PACER docket text was not retrievable in this session). Given the near-immediate stay posture, the practical significance is limited; LG's principal defensive instruments were the IPRs and, later, a non-infringement SJ motion (below). Treat any specific answer/counterclaim date as unverified.

2.6 PTAB oral hearings and final written decisions (2016)

• 2016-03-01: Oral hearing in IPR2015-00506 ('973); Law360 covered it as "LG Pushes PTAB To Toss Display Patent For Lack Of Invention" (https://www.law360.com/cases/52c5841b68f52d465300a781/articles). The hearing record was entered 2016-03-31. The argument centered on two claim-1 limitations ("associated" deformities; density/size/depth/height greatest at approximate midpoints between adjacent light sources), the expired-patent Phillips vs. BRI claim-construction dispute, and priority.
• 2016-06-23: Final Written Decision in IPR2015-00506 — claims 1–5 of the '973 patent unpatentable as anticipated by Shinohara. Same date, IPR2015-01666 FWD (joined). (IPR2015-00506 Paper 26; IPR2015-01666 Paper 11.)
• 2016-07-15: Final Written Decision in IPR2015-00487 ('660) — the Board found that Petitioner had not shown claims 1, 3, 5, 10, 13, 16, 17, 25–29, 33–35 unpatentable over Oe+Etsuo. The '660 patent survived the IPR. (Decision date per Patexia case page: https://services.patexia.com/lawsuits/LG-Display-Co-Ltd-v-Innovative-Display-Technologies-LLC-id-60515.)
• IPR2015-00489 ('177): outcome not verified in the sources I could reach. Given that the '177 patent appears in the April 2017 global settlement, it is likely the claims were not all cancelled, but I will not state an outcome I could not confirm.

2.7 District court stay (2016-05-03)

LG Display's own SEC disclosure states the December 2015 Delaware action "has remained stayed" since 2016-05-03 pending the IPRs. See LG Display Co., Ltd. Form 20-F (FY2016), "In December 2013, Delaware Display Group LLC and Innovative Display Technologies LLC filed a patent infringement action…" (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/[1290109](/patent/1290109)/000119312517145079/d346565d20f.htm and mirror at https://companiesmarketcap.com/nzd/lg-display/sec-reports-20f/0001193125-17-[145079](/patent/145079)/). This is the single most important procedural fact for 2015-cv-01220: the case was frozen essentially from filing to settlement — no Markman, no trial, no verdict.

2.8 Summary judgment activity (motion filed 2016-08-26; reported 2016-08-29)

Law360 reported that LG Display and Lenovo asked a Delaware judge to dismiss the infringement claims because, after years of discovery, DDG had not produced evidence that LG/Lenovo used the patented backlight technology in hundreds of accused products ("LG, Lenovo Say LCD Patent Suit Lacks Evidence," 2016-08-29: https://www.law360.com/cases/52c5841b68f52d465300a781/articles). The article's "Friday" filing date is 2016-08-26. Because the LG-side case was stayed as of 2016-05-03, this SJ motion most plausibly relates to the Lenovo-filed 01220 docket and/or the unstayed 2013 LG actions rather than to the stayed 2015 LG docket. I flag the docket ambiguity; the motion's resolution is not reported in the sources I reviewed.

2.9 Sealing / redaction ruling (2016-12-22) — Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Electronics Inc., 221 F. Supp. 3d 495 (D. Del. 2016)

Judge Andrews denied LG Display's motion to redact a pretrial conference transcript (D.I. 521), permitting redaction of only two specific figures (at 82:9 and 90:11) relating to license/settlement/indemnification terms. The court applied the Mosaid Techs. v. LSI Corp., 878 F. Supp. 2d 503 (D. Del. 2012) good-cause framework, and admonished that the proposed redactions were far broader than necessary. Text: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/[7322974](/patent/7322974)/delaware-display-group-llc-v-lg-electronics-inc/. The reference to a pretrial conference and docket entry 521 indicates this ruling belongs to the unstayed 2013-era LG action, not to the stayed 2015 docket.

2.10 Federal Circuit appeal on the '660 patent (2016-12-23)

LG Display Co., Ltd. and LG Electronics, Inc. filed a Notice of Appeal on 2016-12-23 from the IPR2015-00487 Final Written Decision, docketed at the Federal Circuit as Appeal No. 2017-1413. The stated issues: whether the Board erred in finding Petitioners had not proven claims 1, 3, 5, 10, 13, 16, 17, 25–29, 33–35 of the '660 patent unpatentable over Oe + Etsuo; whether the Board applied the wrong obviousness standard; and claim-construction/prior-art interpretation issues. Petitioner's counsel of record: Robert G. Pluta and Amanda K. Wacker (Mayer Brown LLP, Chicago) — https://insight.rpxcorp.com/federal_circuit/[433800](/patent/433800)/rpx-ptab/IPR2015-00487/...Notice_of_Appeal....pdf. I could not verify the Federal Circuit's disposition of Appeal No. 2017-1413; given the April 2017 global settlement, dismissal as moot is the most likely disposition, but that is an inference, not a sourced fact.

2.11 Settlement and dismissal (March–May 2017)

• March 2017: LG Display's 20-F states the parties "reached settlements in principle through mediation."
• 2017-04-10: Law360 — "Lenovo, LG Settle Patent Suits Over Display Backlight Tech." The parties told the Delaware judge they had agreed to drop claims in one case and were preparing dismissal papers in the other (https://www.law360.com/cases/52c5841b68f52d465300a781/articles).
• 2017-04-12/13: 1:15-cv-01221 closed on 2017-04-12 (last docket entry 2017-04-13). (RPX.)
• 2017 (April): LG Display's Form 20-F: "In April 2017, the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal and amicably settled all claims asserted in these actions." The year-end 2018 restatement of the disclosure adds that the settlement covered the 2013 first case, the December 2015 new case, and the August 2016 E.D. Tex. case on two new patents (http://www.xbrlsite.com/2018/20F/Exemplar-45690.html).
• 2017-05-10/11: 1:15-cv-01220 closed (last docket entry 2017-05-11) per RPX.

Final disposition: dismissal by stipulation under a global, mediated settlement. No judgment, no verdict, no injunction, no fee award. Related actions swept into the same settlement: Surpass Tech Innovation LLC v. LG Display (D. Del., filed March 2014; terminated April 2017), Vesper Technology Research LLC v. LG Display (E.D. Tex., filed Nov. 2016; terminated March 2017), and IDT's August 2016 E.D. Tex. suit on two new patents. (LG Display 20-F FY2016.)

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3. Claim construction (Markman)

No Markman ruling issued in the 2015 Delaware case at issue — it was stayed from 2016-05-03 until its April 2017 dismissal, so it never reached claim construction. There were, however, two relevant claim-construction events in the record:

1. Related D. Del. cases No. 13-cv-522 and No. 14-cv-201 produced claim construction orders that Patent Owner introduced as exhibits (Exs. 2008/2009 area) in IPR2015-00506 on 2015-10-05 — evidence that the DDG/IDT patents were construed in parallel Delaware litigation.
2. In the IPRs themselves, patentability turned partly on the claim-construction standard: because the '973 and '660 patents had expired, Patent Owner argued the Board had to apply the Phillips standard rather than BRI, and that the Petitioners had failed to construe "each of the deformities has a length and width substantially smaller than the length and width of the panel surface." That dispute is preserved in the IPR2015-00506 oral hearing transcript (https://ptacts.uspto.gov/ptacts/public-informations/petitions/[1461551](/patent/1461551)/download-documents?artifactId=2ZaL5ZkRvpWOgM_iLpeBs4uvc7RL4bOoDC2CphKkXlA8V2xeLhaQbbo).

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4. Discovery milestones of strategic significance

The record I could reach does not include a Delaware discovery order in this stayed case. What is documented:

• Document production/expert discovery in the IPRs on a compressed schedule: Patent Owner's Response 2015-10-05; expert depositions (Escuti cross-exam notice 2015-08-26; Werner deposition 2015-12-09, filed as Ex. 1040 on 2015-12-18); Petitioner's Reply 2015-12-18; oral hearing 2016-03-01.
• A substantive damages/secondary-indicia fight in IPR2015-00487, featuring Parker's 2015-10-08 declaration on commercial success of Lumitex solid-state backlight assemblies and a rebuttal declaration attacking nexus (Parker relied on 1996–2000 business-unit sales; opined that the sales were attributable to the patented technology). The Board ultimately sided with Petitioner's non-obviousness analysis only in part — it found no unpatentability.
• The 2016-08-26 non-infringement SJ motion is itself a discovery-milestone marker: it rests on the assertion that DDG never developed evidence tying the accused backlight technology to hundreds of accused products.
• The later sealing fight (2016-12-22) shows license, settlement and indemnification agreements were being discussed on the record at a pretrial conference in the uneasily-stayed earlier LG action — a signal that the parties had begun to converge on settlement months before the April 2017 dismissal.

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5. Parallel PTAB proceedings on the asserted patents and their effect

Other challenges to the same family noted in the institution record: IPR2014-01094 (not instituted), IPR2015-00363 (terminated), IPR2015-00495, plus proceedings on the related '547, '194, '974, '370, '196, '816 patents (Parker family).

Net effect: the IPRs, not the district court, decided this dispute. Two of the three patents in the Dec. 2015 complaints — the '973 (claims 1–5 cancelled by the Board) and, on the record available, the '177 — were the leverage that produced the April 2017 global settlement; the '660 survived the Board but was on appeal when the parties settled. The litigation never got past the pleading/stay stage in the 2015 docket.

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6. Counsel appearing in the record

• Patent Owner (DDG/IDT): Justin B. Kimble, Jeffrey R. Bragalone, Terry A. Saad, T. William Kennedy, N. Kliewer — Bragalone Conroy P.C. (Dallas).
• Petitioner (LG Display / LG Electronics): Robert G. Pluta, Amanda K. Wacker (Streff), Baldine B. Paul, Anita Y. Lam — Mayer Brown LLP (Chicago).
• Experts: Dr. Michael J. Escuti (LG); Kenneth Werner (Patent Owner).

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7. Bottom line

Outcome: stipulated dismissal in April 2017 pursuant to a mediated global settlement among DDG/IDT, LG Display/LG Electronics and Lenovo; all claims settled amicably; the surviving asserted claims were resolved commercially rather than judicially. Present posture: closed (1:15-cv-01220 last docket entry 2017-05-11; companion 1:15-cv-01221 last docket entry 2017-04-13), with a single Federal Circuit appeal (No. 2017-1413, '660 patent) outstanding on the record as of the settlement.

8. Points I could not verify (do not rely on these)

1. The docket-number/caption mismatch — public sources tie 2015-cv-01220 to Lenovo and 2015-cv-01221 to the LG entities; your metadata ties 01220 to LG Display. I deferred to your metadata but flagged every place the distinction matters.
2. Answer/counterclaim content and dates in 1:15-cv-01220 (no PACER docket text retrieved).
3. Outcome of IPR2015-00489 ('177) — no FWD text or claim-outcome found.
4. Disposition of Federal Circuit Appeal No. 2017-1413.
5. Resolution of the 2016-08-26 summary-judgment motion (and confirmation of which docket it was filed in).
6. Specific docket-entry numbers for the stay order (LG's 20-F fixes the date at 2016-05-03 but not a D.I. number) and the stipulation of dismissal.

I'll research plaintiff-side counsel of record across the district court docket, the companion filings, and the parallel PTAB proceedings.

Good — I have the plaintiff-side picture from the docket exhibits. Let me pin down the specific 2015 docket and the full attorney roster.

I have most of what I need. Let me confirm the 2015 complaint signature block and firm/attorney details.

Counsel of Record for the Plaintiff(s) — Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Display Co., No. 1:15-cv-01220 (D. Del.)

Bottom line

The plaintiff side in this campaign was represented by a two-tier team, consistently across all the DDG/IDT Delaware filings (2013 wave and the 2015 refilings): Farnan LLP (Wilmington, DE) as Delaware/local counsel, and Bragalone Conroy P.C. (Dallas, TX) as the out-of-state lead trial counsel appearing pro hac vice. The same Dallas team also served as the Patent Owner's counsel of record in the parallel IPRs on the three asserted patents.

Sourcing caveat (carried forward from the prior sections). I could not retrieve the PACER/RECAP attorney block for the docket numbered 1:15-cv-01220 itself. The roster below is built from (a) the near-identical companion filing 1:15-cv-01221 (the LG-side Dec. 30, 2015 complaint), whose UniCourt docket lists only Brian E. Farnan and Michael J. Farnan as plaintiff attorneys (UniCourt); (b) the signature blocks of the operative DDG/IDT Delaware complaints reproduced in PTAB exhibits; and (c) the 1:13-cv-02109 docket sheet (Ex. 2011 in IPR2015-01717), which shows the full annotated appearance block. Because the three Dec. 2015 complaints (01220/01221/01222) were filed the same day by the same plaintiffs' team on the same three patents, this team almost certainly appears in all three — but I flag that the specific 01220 entry was not directly verified.

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1. Delaware / local counsel — Farnan LLP (Wilmington, DE)

The Dec. 31, 2013 DDG/IDT complaints (the template for the 2015 refilings) close with a signature block that is expressly "FARNAN LLP /s/ Brian E. Farnan — Joseph J. Farnan, Jr. (Bar No. 100245), Brian E. Farnan (Bar No. 4089)," followed by an "Of Counsel:" block listing the Bragalone Conroy attorneys. See the LG complaint excerpt reproduced in the PTAB record at ptacts.uspto.gov petition 1459721.

2. Out-of-state lead counsel — Bragalone Conroy P.C. (Dallas, TX)

These attorneys appeared pro hac vice in the D. Del. actions and are listed "Of Counsel" on the complaints. They are the plaintiff-side trial team for the entire Parker/"Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" assertion campaign.

The D. Del. docket for the related 13-2109 action shows the Bragalone Conroy attorneys formally entered PRO HAC VICE — Attorney to be Noticed: Bragalone, Conroy, Kimble, Olejko, Perkins, and Kennedy (docket sheet, Ex. 2011). The Feb. 23, 2016 opinion lists the full plaintiff team as "Joseph J. Farnan, Jr., Brian E. Farnan, Michael J. Farnan (Farnan LLP) … Jeffrey R. Bragalone (argued), Patrick J. Conroy, Justin B. Kimble, Daniel F. Olejko, James R. Perkins, T. William Kennedy, Jr., Stephanie Wood (Bragalone Conroy P.C.), attorneys for Plaintiffs" (13-2108 opinion).

3. Related but not Delaware counsel (flag, don't conflate)

• T. John Ward, Jr. and Claire Abernathy Henry (Ward & Smith Law Firm, Longview, TX) appear on DDG/IDT complaints filed in the Eastern District of Texas (e.g., the T-Mobile complaint). They are part of the same campaign's Texas-side team, but I found no evidence they entered an appearance in the Delaware 2015 docket.
• Eric Lucas is identified in the D. Del. record as "acting initially as counsel for Acacia and later as counsel for IDT and DDG" in connection with Rambus teardown analyses (Morris James summary, 13-2108) — i.e., an in-house/Acacia-side attorney, not an attorney of record. I could not verify any in-house counsel entry on the 1:15-cv-01220 docket.

4. What remains unverified (do not rely on)

1. The literal attorney block on the docket numbered 1:15-cv-01220 — I did not retrieve the 01220 docket sheet's appearance entries from PACER/RECAP. The roster above is sourced from the 1:15-cv-01221 UniCourt listing (Brian E. Farnan, Michael J. Farnan only), the 1:15-cv-01221/01222 complaint signature blocks, and the 13-2109 docket.
2. Whether Joseph J. Farnan, Jr. formally entered an appearance in the 2015 refilings (he is docket-listed as lead attorney in the 2013 actions; the 01221 UniCourt entry surfaces only Brian and Michael Farnan).
3. Whether any additional Bragalone Conroy attorney or a substituted firm appeared in 01220 specifically — the sustained stay (from 2016-05-03, per LG Display's 20-F) means the paper trail may be thin.
4. Any in-house counsel of record for DDG/IDT — not found.

Recommended verification: pull the PACER docket sheets for 1:15-cv-01220 and 1:15-cv-01221 (D. Del.) — specifically D.I. 1 (complaint signature block), the entries of appearance / pro hac vice motions, and the April 2017 stipulation of dismissal, which typically reconfirms the complete attorney block for each side.

I'll research defendant-side counsel across the docket, related Delaware actions, and the parallel IPRs.

I hit the research step limit before I could pull defendant-side appearance entries from PACER/RECAP, so I need to be candid about what is verified versus not.

Bottom line

I could not verify the defendant(s)' district-court counsel of record in 1:15-cv-01220 from the sources I was able to reach in this session. The docket aggregator entries I could open for the companion filing (1:15-cv-01221, Delaware Display Group LLC et al. v. LG Electronics, Inc., et al.) list only the plaintiff-side appearances — Brian E. Farnan and Michael J. Farnan (Farnan LLP, Wilmington) — and do not surface a defendant attorney block (UniCourt case page, 1:15-cv-01221: https://unicourt.com/case/rc-db1-delaware-display-group-llc-et-al-v-lg-electronics-inc-et-al-[246584](/patent/246584)). RPX's docket page for 1:15-cv-01220 likewise shows the case metadata (Judge Richard G. Andrews; filed 12/30/2015; closed 05/10/2017; last docket entry 05/11/2017) but not an attorney roster (https://insight.rpxcorp.com/litigation/dedce-58569-delaware-display-group-v-lenovo-group). Citing my operating rules: I will not invent names to fill that gap.

What IS sourced and relevant to the defense side

The one body of defendant-side representation I can source with specificity is the PTAB side, and those attorneys appear for the LG entities on the exact same three patents:

These four are the attorneys of record most directly tied to the LG defendants' validity challenge in this dispute (established in the prior sections of this case summary from the IPR papers and the Federal Circuit notice of appeal). Whether the same Mayer Brown team also entered an appearance in the Delaware district court case is not verified.

What remains unverified (do not rely on it)

1. The Delaware local counsel for LG Display / LG Display America / the LG entities in 1:15-cv-01220 (or 1:15-cv-01221). In D. Del. practice a Delaware-bar firm (e.g., Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, Potter Anderson & Corroon, or Richards, Layton & Finger) would have appeared as local counsel alongside out-of-state lead counsel, but I could not confirm which firm or which individual attorneys in this session and will not name them speculatively.
2. Out-of-state lead defense counsel in the district court cases. The sustained-stay posture (see prior section: stayed 2016-05-03 per LG Display's Form 20-F) may mean minimal appearances beyond local counsel, but that is an inference.
3. Lenovo-side counsel in the companion 1:15-cv-01220 (captioned Delaware Display Group LLC v. Lenovo Group Ltd. per RPX), likewise unverified.
4. Whether any of the defendants used in-house counsel of record — not found.

Recommended next step to close the gap

Pull the docket sheets directly: PACER/RECAP for 1:15-cv-01220 and 1:15-cv-01221 (D. Del.), entries for the complaint (D.I. 1), any entry of appearance / pro hac vice motions, and the stipulation of dismissal (which typically reconfirms the full attorney block for each side). The earlier first-wave LG actions — DDG/IDT v. LG Electronics, No. 1:13-cv-02109 (D. Del.) — are the more likely place to find LG's Delaware counsel team, since that case was litigated through a pretrial conference and the sealing opinion at 221 F. Supp. 3d 495 (D. Del. 2016) before being settled. If you'd like, I can attempt that docket pull in a follow-up pass.