Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Acer Inc. et al.

I'll research this case across the sources you named.

Good foundation. Now let me dig into the IPR outcomes, the Microsoft angle, and the case's resolution.

Let me pin down the Microsoft defendant, the specific indefinite claim, and the case/IPR outcomes.

Case Overview: Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Acer Inc. et al., No. 2:13-cv-00522-JRG (E.D. Tex.)

The parties. Plaintiff Innovative Display Technologies LLC ("IDT") is a Texas limited liability company with its principal place of business in Plano (its registered address, 1701 Directors Blvd., Austin, is shared with numerous other Acacia affiliates). It is a non-practicing entity — RPX identifies it as a subsidiary of Acacia Research Group LLC, the well-known public patent-licensing company; IDT makes no products, employs no engineers, and conducts no R&D. It was apparently formed in March 2013 and began litigating in June 2013. The asserted patents have a documented chain of title: they originated with Solid State Opto Limited (an entity connected to Lumitex and inventor-entrepreneur Mang-Shiang Lee), were sold to Rambus around 2009–2010, and were assigned to Acacia in March 2013, which then pushed them out to IDT — i.e., roughly three months from acquisition to first complaint (see STPI, iknow 7/11/2013; RPX Insight, 1/9/2014 and 4/10/2014). The defendants are Acer Inc. and Acer America Corp. (the lead case) and Microsoft Corp. (per the case metadata and case-summary sources; Acer makes notebooks, monitors, tablets and phones, Microsoft makes Surface devices and Windows-based hardware). A sister Acacia entity, Delaware Display Group LLC ("DDG"), asserted a related eighth patent ('196) against the same industry in parallel suits, and DDG/IDT jointly sued LG and others in Delaware and Texas.

The accused technology. The suits target any consumer product with an edge-lit LCD — laptops, tablets, smartphones, monitors, printers and even calculators. The accused structures are conventional LCD backlight assemblies: a light guide/optical panel fed by an LED strip on one or more edges, a pattern of light-extracting "deformities" (prisms, lenses, ridges, dots) that controls uniformity and output distribution, a reflective tray holding and recycling light, a transition region near the LEDs, air gaps, and overlying films. The complaints alleged willful infringement on the theory that defendants were placed on notice by an August 2012 letter demanding that use of the technology cease, and sought injunctions plus treble damages (see Southeast Texas Record, 7/2013; Mandour & Associates release, 2013). One widely circulated secondary account (Techdirt, 8/12/2014) framed IDT's Apple demand as roughly $5.7 billion in "accrued royalties," but that is a commentator's arithmetic, not a court finding.

The patents and procedural posture. All seven patents-in-suit are titled "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies," share a single inventor (Jeffery R. Parker of Ohio), share a common written description and figures, and claim priority to a common ancestor with an earliest priority date of June 27, 1995 (the family traces to U.S. Pat. 5,613,751). In one-line sketches: the '547 (6,755,547, issued 6/29/2004) claims a backlight with a separate transparent sheet/film over the light-emitting area with an air gap and a pattern of deformities directing light "through a liquid crystal display with low loss"; the '194 (7,300,194, 11/27/2007) claims panel assemblies with a varying pattern of light-extracting deformities producing a desired output distribution; the '177 (7,384,177, 6/10/2008) claims a tray with a back wall and continuous side walls forming a cavity, light source(s), and an overlying sheet/film, with the tray serving as a reflector having secondary reflective/refractive surfaces; the '660 (7,404,660, 7/29/2008) claims a light guide with deformities, a transition region, and multiple light sources producing a wide (wider-than-tall) output distribution, optionally in a tray; the '974 (7,434,974, 10/14/2008) claims light-extracting deformities on both sides of the panel member, "of a different type" on one side than the other; the '370 (7,537,370, 5/26/2009) claims related panel/film configurations with patterns of light-extracting deformities; and the '816 (8,215,816, issued 7/10/2012 — the last-issued member) claims a sheet/film with deformities for controlling the light output ray-angle distribution.

Procedurally, the case was filed June 28, 2013 in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas before Judge J. Rodney Gilstrap (2:13-cv-00522-JRG), consolidated as the lead case with contemporaneously filed suits against Dell (2:13-cv-523), HP (524), Huawei (525), Research In Motion/BlackBerry (526) and ZTE (527). After a July 30, 2014 Markman hearing, Judge Gilstrap issued a Claim Construction Memorandum and Order on August 26, 2014 (Dkt. 101; a related order is cited in IPR papers as Dkt. 244), construing the disputed terms across all seven patents and invalidating one claim as indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112 ¶ 2 — the claim reciting "a pattern of deformities on one side of the sheet or film having a width and length that is quite small in relation to the width and length of the sheet or film," which the court found lacked any objective standard. Notably, the court struck plaintiff's expert declaration (Dkt. 85, 7/11/2014), so the plaintiff had to defend the family on intrinsic evidence alone. (The claim appears in the '547 patent's claim 1, which the parties treated as representative; I was not able to confirm from the sources retrieved whether the court's indefiniteness holding was expressly tied to the '547 or to another family member — treat the patent attribution as unverified.)

Why it matters. Three features make this case a useful illustration of early-2010s PAE litigation. (1) Venue and volume: Marshall/E.D. Tex. under Judge Gilstrap was the pre-TC Heartland capital of patent assertion, and IDT's campaign was broad — RPX counted nearly 30 cases within a year and targets spanning Apple, Google, Dell, HP, Acer, BlackBerry, LG, Nokia, Sony, HTC, Lenovo, Amazon, VIZIO, plus automakers (Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda), camera makers (Canon, Nikon) and GPS makers (TomTom, Garmin) — with OEM defendants often pulled in over supplier-designed backlights. (2) IPR linkage: the portfolio was subjected to an extraordinary PTAB onslaught — IDT itself represented to the Board in early 2015 that its portfolio was "currently subject to 20 IPRs," including IPR2014-01092/-01094/-01095/-01096/-01097, IPR2014-01357 and -01362, plus later LG, LG Display, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota filings (e.g., IPR2015-00359–00368, -00487–-00497, -00895–-00897, -01113, -01717), with overlapping/identical grounds filed by multiple parties and joinder fights (see IDT's Opposition to Motion for Joinder, IPR2015-00495; PTAB records show IPR2014-01362 ('177) instituted 3/2/2015 and decided 2/8/2016, IPR2014-01096 ('370) terminated 12/18/2015, and IPR2015-00487 ('660) reaching final written decision). The district court's claim-construction order was itself entered as an exhibit in those IPRs (Ex. 2001/2007), so the Acer Markman ruling fed directly into the validity fight. (3) Secondary-market context: the case sits at the end of a Rambus-to-Acacia patent re-sale pipeline and is frequently cited as exemplary of NPE assertion patterns in display/backlight technology.

Sourcing caveats. The above is grounded in the court's published claim construction order (via vLex/Studicata summaries), the parties' briefing and PTAB filings (docketalarm, ptacts.uspto.gov), RPX Insight, Unified Patents' PTAB portal, and Southeast Texas Record reporting. I was unable to verify (a) the docketed basis for naming Microsoft in 2:13-cv-522 or its specific accused products, (b) the ultimate resolution of the case (settlement, dismissal, or judgment) or any settlement terms, and (c) the exact claim number/patent held indefinite. Those items should be confirmed against PACER docket 2:13-cv-00522 and the IPR final written decisions before being relied upon.

I'll research this case systematically across multiple sources.

Let me dig into the PTAB proceedings and the final disposition.

Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Acer Inc. et al., No. 2:13-cv-00522-JRG (E.D. Tex.)

Below is the chronological development of the lead E.D. Tex. case, the parallel PTAB attacks on the seven asserted "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" patents, and the final disposition. Where a fact could not be confirmed from a retrieved primary source, I flag it.

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1. Filing and initial pleadings (2013)

• 2013-06-28 — Complaint filed. IDT (a Plano, Texas LLC) sued Acer Inc. and Acer America Corp., C.A. No. 2:13-cv-00522, Marshall Division, assigned to Judge Rodney Gilstrap. Asserted patents: 6,755,547; 7,300,194; 7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,974; 7,537,370; and 8,215,816 — all titled Light Emitting Panel Assemblies, sole inventor Jeffery R. Parker, all claiming priority to a common ancestor with a June 27, 1995 earliest priority date. Prayer: injunction, damages, treble damages, interest, fees. (Complaint via PTAB Ex. 1003; Southeast Texas Record filing roundup)
• 2013-06-28 — Companion suits. Same-day complaints against Dell (2:13-cv-523), Hewlett-Packard (524), Huawei (525), Research in Motion/BlackBerry (526), and ZTE (527). IDT's Rule 7.1 disclosure identified Acacia Research Corporation and Acacia Research Group LLC as affiliates (Dkt. 3) — the NPE structure later confirmed in the PTAB record, which lists Acacia as a real party in interest. (RPX Insight case page)
• 2013-07-01 — Acer America served. 2013-07-17/18 — unopposed extension for Acer to respond (Dkt. 14, 15).
• 2013-09-23 — Acer's answer (Dkt. 16), with jury demand and corporate disclosure statement (Dkt. 17, 18). No Acer counterclaims appear on the docket.
• 2013-10-01 — IDT filed a separate suit against Microsoft Corp., No. 2:13-cv-00783 (E.D. Tex.).
• 2013-12-18/19 — Consolidation order (Dkt. 24): all cases consolidated for pretrial purposes (except venue) into the first-filed 2:13-cv-00522 as the lead case. Microsoft thereafter litigated within the consolidated lead case, which is why the caption reads Acer Inc. et al. and includes Microsoft.
• 2014-07-01 — Microsoft's operative pleading (Dkt. 76, sealed): Microsoft's answer and counterclaim to IDT's First Amended Complaint, plus a Third-Party Complaint against Acacia Research Corporation. Acacia was served 2014-07-01 (Dkt. 81) and obtained an extension to answer (Dkt. 89, 2014-07-18). Bringing Acacia in as a third-party defendant was the notable pleading-strategy move in this case, and it foreshadowed the RPI/privy arguments IDT later pressed at the PTAB.

2. Pre-trial motions of substance and discovery milestones

• 2014-01-23 — Docket Control and Discovery Orders (Dkt. 35, 36, 37): amended pleadings due 2014-05-12; Markman set for 2014-07-28; dispositive motions due 2015-02-02; pretrial conference 2015-02-23; jury selection 2015-03-09; mediation deadline 2014-08-25.
• 2014-02-04/05 — Stipulated protective order (Dkt. 45).
• 2014-02-14 — Defendants served invalidity contentions (P.R. 3-3) (Dkt. 50–53).
• 2014-03-17 — Mediation report (Microsoft): "suspended" (Dkt. 54) before mediator David Folsom (former E.D. Tex. Chief Judge).
• 2014-04-25 — Referral of the case to Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne solely to conduct the claim construction hearing (Dkt. 59).
• 2014-05-20 — Defendants' Motion for Leave to Amend Invalidity Contentions (Dkt. 63), seeking to add U.S. 4,945,350, U.S. 5,592,332, JP H05-196820A, and JP H06-242321.
• 2014-06-17 — Technical advisor appointed: David Keyzer (Dkt. 70).
• 2014-06-19 — DENIED: Motion for Leave to Amend Invalidity Contentions (Dkt. 71). Applying the S & W Enterprises good-cause factors (5th Cir.) and P.R. 3-6, Judge Gilstrap held defendants failed to explain why the art could not have been found with reasonable diligence and that a unilateral "reservation of rights" buried in unfiled contentions "cannot trump" the Local Patent Rules and the Docket Control Order. (Opinion via vLex) This was a meaningful pretrial win for IDT — it froze the prior-art universe on the eve of Markman.
• 2014-06-24 — Defendants' expedited motion to strike IDT's expert declaration (Kenneth I. Werner) submitted with IDT's opening claim construction brief (Dkt. 72; expedited briefing granted Dkt. 74).
• 2014-07-11 — GRANTED: motion to strike the Werner declaration (Dkt. 85).
• Discovery milestones with strategic significance:
  • 2014-08-22 — Defendants' unopposed motion for a limited exception to the protective order to obtain Rambus license agreements (Dkt. 99) — damages/licensing discovery aimed at Acacia's acquisition chain (the '660 patent passed Rambus → Acacia Research Group on 2013-03-07 per the PTAB record).
  • 2014-09-16 — multiple mediation reports filed (Dkt. 122, 124, 125); 2014-11-12 report (Dkt. 185).
  • 2014-10-27/28 — cross-motions to compel (IDT Dkt. 158/159/160; Dell/HP Dkt. 161; others Dkt. 165/166); several resolved by stipulation and terminated as moot 2014-11-21 (Dkt. 204, 205) and by order 2014-10-03 (Dkt. 133).
  • Discovery deadline extended repeatedly (Dkt. 167, 179, 193, 203).
• 2015-01-23 to 2015-02-24 — renewed case-management activity (Dkt. 239–246), including a further referral to the magistrate judge (Dkt. 242) and a Scheduling Order on 2015-02-24 (Dkt. 246). The docket also reflects a stay-related filing/order on 2015-02-05 (Dkt. 244) — I could not verify from the available sources whether this was an order staying the case pending the LG IPRs or a related motion.
• 2015-02-03 — Mediation report: HP and Dell settled (Dkt. 243).

3. Claim construction (Markman)

• 2014-05-05 — P.R. 4-3 Joint Claim Construction and Prehearing Statement (Dkt. 61). 2014-06-16 — IDT opening brief (Dkt. 69); 2014-06-30 — defendants' responsive brief (Dkt. 75); 2014-07-07 — IDT reply (Dkt. 82); 2014-07-14 — Joint Claim Construction Chart (Dkt. 89).
• 2014-07-30 — Markman hearing (Dkt. 92), before Judge Gilstrap with Magistrate Judge Payne. The court gave the parties preliminary constructions shortly before the hearing to focus argument.
• 2014-08-26 — Claim Construction Memorandum and Order (Dkt. 101, 58 pp.). Key holdings:
  • The patents share a common written description; the court construed the '547 specification as representative.
  • Construed the disputed terms (including "deformities," "continuous side walls," "transition region," "different type" deformities, "air gap," "predetermined," "well defined optical elements or deformities," "low loss," and "to suit/fit a particular application"), largely on intrinsic evidence, rejecting extrinsic dictionary evidence that conflicted with the intrinsic record.
  • INVALIDATED AS INDEFINITE the term "a pattern of deformities on one side of the sheet or film having a width and length that is quite small in relation to the width and length of the sheet or film" under 35 U.S.C. § 112 ¶ 2, reasoning that "quite small" supplies no objective standard of measurement, applying Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2120 (2014).
  • Importantly, the court rejected indefiniteness for the other challenged terms — including the "greater width than height / more in the width direction" limitations. IDT later relied on this at the PTAB (counsel told the Board: "The [E.D. Tex. court] did construe these exact claim limitations and found them to be definite").
  • The court did not consider IDT's Werner declaration, which had been struck (Dkt. 85).
  • (Order text; vLex; Studicata summary)
• The claim construction order became a key PTAB exhibit — e.g., IPR2015-00487 Ex. 2001 (Dkt. 101 order) and Ex. 2007 (Dkt. 244 order in the related Hyundai case, 2:14-cv-201). The E.D. Tex. constructions thus directly shaped the PTAB claim-construction positions.

4. Trial events, verdict, post-trial motions

• None. The case did not reach trial in the Acer/Microsoft consolidated action. No verdict, JMOL, new-trial, or fee motions are reflected in the available docket. The 2015-03-09 jury selection setting was never reached.

5. Settlement, dismissal, and final disposition

• 2015-03-06/07 — Notice of Settlement and Agreed Motion to Extend Dismissal Deadline (Dkt. 247).
• 2015-03-10 — Status conference before Magistrate Judge Payne (Dkt. 252).
• 2015-03-11 — Order Dismissing Case (Dkt. 251); further dismissal-related order 2015-03-20 (Dkt. 253) and 2015-03-24 (Dkt. 254).
• Post-dismissal housekeeping continued on the docket, including a 2015-10-13 order (Dkt. 255) and a 2017-07-14 (redacted) transcript (Dkt. 256), suggesting residual sealing/redaction matters rather than merits activity.
• Present posture: the lead case appears terminated by settlement in March 2015, consistent with the "claim construction; one claim invalidated as indefinite" status you recorded — the case resolved before dispositive motions or trial. I could not retrieve the settlement agreement or a per-party dismissal breakdown from open sources; the docket shows HP and Dell had separately settled in February 2015 (mediation report, Dkt. 243).
• No Federal Circuit appeal of the district court case. The only appellate activity is from the PTAB track (below).

6. Parallel PTAB proceedings and their effect on the litigation

The seven patents were attacked on an extraordinary scale, principally by LG Display / LG Electronics (19 IPR petitions against the patent family, per IDT's own count) and by LG's backlight supplier K.J. Pretech and VIZIO, in parallel with IDT's Delaware campaign (Delaware Display Group LLC v. LG Electronics Inc., No. 1:13-cv-02109 (D. Del.)) and dozens of other E.D. Tex./D. Del. suits. IDT's mandatory notices in IPR2014-01357 list 37 co-pending infringement actions on these patents. (Mandatory notices, IPR2014-01357)

Patents against which petitions were filed (selection): '547 (IPR2014-01357, -01359, -01362; IPR2015-00360, -00361), '194 (IPR2014-01097; IPR2015-00366), '660 (IPR2014-01094; IPR2015-00363, -00487, -00495), '974 (IPR2014-01092; IPR2015-00497, -00755, -01868), '370 (IPR2014-01096; IPR2015-00493, -00753, -01867), '177 (IPR2015-00756), '816 (IPR2014-01095; IPR2015-00366, -00496, -00834, -01114, -01866).

• 2014-07-01 — LG Display petitions filed against the family (e.g., IPR2014-01092/-01094/-01095/-01096/-01097).
• 2015-01-13 — IPR2014-01095 ('816), Decision Denying Institution (Paper 9; Bunting, Giannetti, Powell). The Board agreed Pristash and Tsunoda disclosed most elements but found LG's rationale for modifying Pristash conclusory — no fact-based motivation to combine. Not sufficient "to merely demonstrate that each of the components is known." (NLR summary; decision PDF)
• 2015 — additional institution denials: IPR2014-01092 ('974) and IPR2014-01094 ('660) not instituted; IPR2014-01096 ('370) not instituted on the asserted claims; IPR2015-00496 ('816, LG Electronics) denied 2015-07-20 (per IDT's IPR2015-01866 preliminary response).
• 2015-07-16 — IPR2015-00487 ('660, LG Display) INSTITUTED on claims 1, 3, 5, 10, 13, 16, 17, 25–29, 33–35 over Oe (U.S. 5,711,589) in view of Etsuo (JP H07-064078). Oral hearing 2016-03-16.
• 2016-07-15 — Final Written Decision, IPR2015-00487: the Board held LG did not prove unpatentability by a preponderance — a win for IDT on the '660 patent. (FWD + record; FWD/appeal documents)
• 2016-12-23 — LG Display/LG Electronics notice of appeal of IPR2015-00487 to the Federal Circuit, Appeal No. 2017-1413 (Patexia). I was not able to confirm the disposition of that appeal from the retrieved sources — treat the appellate outcome as unverified.
• 2015-09-11 — K.J. Pretech Co., Ltd. (LG's supplier) filed IPR2015-01866 ('816), -01867 ('370), and -01868 ('974). IDT's preliminary response argued the petitions were time-barred under § 315(b) because LG was an unnamed RPI/privy (LG was already barred after its 2015-01-02 § 315(b) deadline), and discretionary denial under § 325(d) for substantially the same art/arguments as IPR2014-01095. IDT characterized the filings as a strategic move to "fill the gaps" and bolster LG's stay motion in Delaware. (IDT Preliminary Response, IPR2015-01866)
• 2016-03-17 — Institution granted in the K.J. Pretech IPRs (IPR2015-01866 and companions), with VIZIO IPRs (Cases 2016-00910 and 2016-00914) joined. At the consolidated oral hearing, Pretech argued the Kisou reference anticipates the '974 patent and relied on Pristash for the '816 patent; IDT (Bragalone/Kimble) opposed. (IPR2015-01866 case page; hearing transcript via PTActs)
• 2017-03-15 — Final Written Decision reported for IPR2015-01866 (status: "Final Written Decision"). I could not verify from the retrieved sources which claims (if any) were held unpatentable; the search results were cut off before the outcome. Flag as unverified.

Effect on the district court litigation. The PTAB campaign materially shaped the case: (a) it produced the January 2015 institution denials on the '816 and '974/'660/'370 patents, which removed the strongest stay predicate for most of the asserted claims; (b) it generated a competing claim-construction standard (BRI in the IPRs vs. Phillips in E.D. Tex.) that IDT exploited — its counsel argued to the Board that the district court had already rejected indefiniteness on the key "greater width than height" terms while LG took no construction position; and (c) the K.J. Pretech filings were litigated as an RPI/privy/time-bar fight, which is a recurring strategic theme in Acacia-family litigation. In Delaware, by contrast, the IPRs did support a stay of Delaware Display Group v. LG.

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Bottom line

The Acer/Microsoft consolidated action, No. 2:13-cv-00522-JRG, was an early-2014 claim-construction case on a seven-patent Parker "light emitting panel" family: defendants lost their bid to amend invalidity contentions (2014-06-19) and won a strike of IDT's expert declaration (2014-07-11); after the 2014-07-30 Markman hearing, the court issued its constructions on 2014-08-26, invalidating one "quite small" pattern-of-deformities limitation as indefinite under § 112 ¶ 2 but upholding the remainder. The case settled before trial, with a notice of settlement filed 2015-03-06/07 and dismissal entered 2015-03-11, so there is no verdict, no JMOL/fee award, and no merits appeal. The heavyweight litigation continued at the PTAB, where LG Display's 19-petition campaign largely failed at institution (including the '816 and '974 patents), IDT prevailed in the IPR2015-00487 Final Written Decision on 2016-07-15 (appealed to the Federal Circuit as No. 2017-1413), and the K.J. Pretech/VIZIO IPRs on the '816, '370, and '974 patents went to a Final Written Decision on 2017-03-15.

Unverified items: (1) the outcome of the K.J. Pretech final written decisions — i.e., which claims survived; (2) the disposition of Federal Circuit Appeal No. 2017-1413; (3) the content and terms of the 2015 settlement and the per-defendant dismissal mechanics; and (4) whether Dkt. 244 (2015-02-05) was an order staying the case pending IPR or a related motion.

I'll search for press coverage across multiple angles.

I searched the case caption, the party names, the patent numbers, the plaintiff/defendant combinations, and the settlement angle. Set out below is what I actually found; the honest headline is that this docket was covered as a data point in NPE-campaign reporting, not as a case.

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The filing got only niche coverage; the campaign got the attention. The June 28, 2013 complaint against Acer was reported at filing by a law-firm client alert, Mandour & Associates, which described IDT as a Plano company suing Dell, HP, BlackBerry, Acer, Huawei and ZTE over seven "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" patents (6,755,547; 7,300,194; 7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,974; 7,537,370; 8,215,816), alleged willfulness based on an August 2012 cease-and-desist letter, and sought treble damages plus an injunction. Taiwan's STPI iknow (2013-07-11) ran a Chinese-language analysis built specifically around the Acer suit, tracing the chain of title — Lumitex → inventor Mang-Shiang Lee/Solid State Opto → Rambus (for a reported US$26 million) → Acacia (March 2013) → IDT — and noting IDT held 51 U.S. patents and no products. The most substantive running coverage came from RPX Insight (2014-04-10), which reported that "almost 30 cases have been filed since IDT began asserting these patents," listed Acer among the targeted makers (alongside Apple, BlackBerry, Dell, HP, LG, Nokia and Sony), and confirmed the Solid State Opto → Rambus (2009) → Acacia (March 2013) provenance.

The outlet that made the case famous — as an example, not a merits story — was Techdirt. Techdirt (2014-08-12) profiled IDT under the headline "Know Your Troll," reporting 37 IDT suits, targets ranging from Verizon and AT&T to Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Canon, Nikon, TomTom and Garmin, a single licensing deal (Garmin), and that the patents were "weaponized patents its parent company, Acacia, acquired from 'we're not a patent troll' Rambus." That piece, and a follow-on Techrights commentary (2014-08-13) arguing the patents rather than the trolls are the problem, are the closest thing to "industry reaction" I located. Notably, none of this coverage discusses the Acer/Microsoft litigation — Acer appears only as one name in a target list, and I found no press account at all of Microsoft's presence in the consolidated case, of its answer/third-party complaint against Acacia, or of the Microsoft–Acacia license-agreement/breach-of-contract defense that the docket in No. 2:13-cv-783 shows was being litigated (including a Rule 19 fight over joining Acacia Research Corporation, Dkt. 54 in that case).

Reported numbers are soft, and one figure in the prior sections needs correcting. The widely circulated "$5.7 billion" Apple demand is not Techdirt's number — Techdirt wrote "nearly $6 billion in 'accrued royalties.'" The precise $5.7 billion arithmetic traces to a commentary post on pfhub.com (reposted on an investor message board, InvestorsHub) that multiplied a rule-of-thumb 5% royalty against Apple's 2004–2014 net income of $114.2 billion. So the earlier sections' attribution of the $5.7B figure to Techdirt should be corrected, and in any event it is a blogger's arithmetic applied to a "fair and reasonable royalty" prayer — not a pleaded demand, and not a court finding. I found no press report of any damages figure, settlement amount, or license payment in the Acer/Microsoft matter itself.

Where reporting diverges. Techdirt's characterization is directly contradicted by the only executive statement I found: Acacia's Marvin Key, quoted in that same Techdirt piece, insisting "when someone is sued, whether a small or big company, that every single one of those cases is frivolous, abusive and without merit… that's simply untrue." On the law side, there is an asymmetry worth flagging: the August 26, 2014 claim construction ruling's indefiniteness holding on "quite small" became a well-known citation in post-Nautilus literature (it appears, e.g., in the CCH IP Law Daily-hosted Interval petition as Innovative Display Techs. LLC v. Acer Inc., 2014 WL 4230037, cited for finding "quite small" indefinite) — yet I could not find any news article, as opposed to briefs and treatises, reporting the ruling. The only Law360 material I located was the case page for the sibling IDT v. Volkswagen suit (April 3, 2014 filing; June 2, 2014 motion arguing the claims reach "essentially every Volkswagen and Audi" vehicle) — same campaign and patents, different docket.

Bottom line: there is no Reuters, Bloomberg Law, Law360, Ars Technica, or Verge coverage of IDT v. Acer that I could find, and no reporting whatsoever on the March 2015 settlement that ended it. The case's press footprint consists of campaign-level NPE commentary (Techdirt, RPX, Techrights), two filing-stage write-ups (Mandour, STPI), and a $5.7B figure that is a blog's back-of-envelope math rather than reported fact.

Sources

• Case IPR2014- 01357 Patent 6,755,547
• Filed on behalf of Innovative Display Technologies LLC By: Justin B
• Acacia Research enters into settlement and license agreement with Mitac Digital
• The Problem is Software Patents (and Scope), Not Patent Trolls Who Abuse Them Just Like Large Corporations - The Problem is Software Patents (and Scope), Not Patent Trolls Who Abuse Them Just Like Large Corporations
• 發光面板組件專利訴訟，Innovative Display Technologies 控告Dell等6間公司 - ︿Top
• During 2004, Acacia Media Technologies, ("Acacia") filed a lawsuit against us and DISH Network in the United States District Cou...
• Complaint analysis | 2:16-cv-00932 | Innovative Display Tech LLC v. LG Display Co Ltd | Ex Parte
• Complaint analysis | 1:13-cv-02111 | Delaware Display Group LLC v. Sony Corp | Ex Parte
• acacia – Techdirt
• nikon – Techdirt
• Ex. 1011 | IPR2015-00753 | Sony Corp v. Innovative Display Technologies LLC | Ex Parte
• Petition analysis | IPR2015-01114 | Mercedes Benz USA LLC v. Innovative Display Technologies LLC | Ex Parte

I'll research the plaintiff's counsel of record for this case. Let me run several targeted searches.

Let me dig deeper on each attorney and firm.

Let me verify the docket sheet details and any additional appearances.

Plaintiff's Counsel of Record — Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Acer Inc. et al., No. 2:13-cv-00522-JRG (E.D. Tex.)

Sourcing note. The full PACER/ECF attorney-appearance list is behind paywalls, so I could not pull the docket sheet's "lead attorney" designations line-by-line. The roster below is reconstructed from (i) the contemporaneous complaint filing report in the Southeast Texas Record (which identifies the filing attorneys by firm), (ii) docket entries surfaced on Plainsite, and (iii) PTAB filings by the same counsel in the parallel IPRs against the same patents. Where a fact is an inference rather than a record citation, I say so.

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Firm 1 — Bragalone Conroy PC, Dallas, Texas (2200 Ross Ave., Suite 4500 West, Dallas, TX 75201)

The complaint was filed by five Bragalone Conroy attorneys; that firm functioned as lead/plaintiff-side counsel throughout. (Bragalone Conroy's Dallas address is confirmed by the firm's own PTAB powers of attorney, e.g., IPR2015-00831 and IPR2019-01590 filings.)

Caveat: a Plainsite docket entry attributes a protective-order notice to "Kennedy, Thomas." I cannot verify whether that is a PACER name-parsing variant of T. William Kennedy, Jr. or a separate Bragalone Conroy attorney; treat the "Kennedy" attribution with caution.

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Firm 2 — Ward & Smith Law Firm, Longview, Texas (local counsel)

This East Texas trial boutique served as local counsel, the standard configuration for EDTX patent cases.

Firm-name note for current docketing/history purposes: Ward & Smith became Ward, Smith & Hill, PLLC, and effective October 1, 2024, the continuing firm was renamed Miller Fair Henry PLLC, with Judge T. John Ward and former Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham IV remaining Of Counsel. Claire Abernathy Henry and Andrea Fair are name partners of the successor firm.

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Practical takeaways

1. Allocation of roles: The complaint filing report frames Bragalone Conroy as the substantive/plaintiff-side firm and Ward & Smith as the East Texas local firm. That framing is corroborated by the PTAB record, where Bragalone Conroy (not Ward & Smith) held IDT's powers of attorney across the parallel IPRs on the '660, '547, '194, '177, '660, '974, '370 and '816 patents.
2. In-house counsel: No in-house attorney appears to have entered an appearance for plaintiff IDT, a Texas LLC — consistent with IDT operating as a non-practicing-entity plaintiff whose portfolio was managed by outside counsel. I found no record of an IDT in-house lawyer of record.
3. Sealed material: The docket (per Plainsite) shows sealed motions and protective-order activity in 2014, including filings by Kimble and the "Kennedy" entry. Sealed filings do not change the identity of counsel of record but do mean some litigation strategy documents remain non-public.
4. Case posture cross-reference: Plaintiff's counsel's work here ran in parallel with the 2014 claim construction order and the indefiniteness/§ 112(2) ruling referenced in the case summary (claim construction orders at Dkt. 101 and Dkt. 244 in No. 2:13-cv-522), and with the IPR defense of the same patents. Per Bragalone's own case list, the Acer matter resolved by favorable settlement following mediation (March 11, 2015), so the appearance of counsel is essentially frozen as of that 2014–2015 window.

Bottom line: The plaintiff's counsel of record are Jeffrey R. Bragalone, Justin B. Kimble, Patrick J. Conroy, T. William Kennedy, Jr., and Daniel F. Olejko (Bragalone Conroy PC, Dallas) as lead/plaintiff-side counsel, and T. John Ward, Jr. and Claire Abernathy Henry (Ward & Smith, now Miller Fair Henry, Longview) as East Texas local counsel.

I'll research the counsel of record for the defendants in this case.

Let me dig into the docket sheet and defense-side filings for the specific counsel of record.