Litigation

Neo Wireless, LLC v. Ford Motor Company

pending

2:22-cv-11402-TGB

Patents at issue (1)

10965512

Plaintiffs (1)

Defendants (1)

Summary

Neo Wireless sued Ford Motor Company in W.D. Mo. (4:22-cv-00210); the case was transferred into MDL 3034 as 2:22-cv-11402-TGB. It remained pending in the MDL; the related IPR on the '512 patent terminated by settlement in Feb. 2024.

Case overview & background

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Key legal developments & outcome

Major rulings, motions, claim construction, settlements, and the present posture or final disposition.

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In the news

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Press and analyst coverage of Neo Wireless v. Ford

Coverage of this specific docket is thin and comes almost entirely from the legal trade press, because the Ford case is one of roughly nine consolidated automaker suits in MDL 3034. The earliest reporting I found is IPWatchdog's July 8, 2022 "Patent Filings Roundup," which listed the complaint as "2:22-cv-11402 | Filed | Neo Wireless LLC [Softbank Group, Fortress IP] | Ford Motor Company" with the asserted patents 10,771,302, 10,447,450, 8,467,366, 10,833,908, 10,075,941 and 10,965,512 — establishing the press framing of Neo Wireless as a SoftBank/Fortress-backed licensing entity. Law360 maintains a "NEO Wireless, LLC Patent Litigation" case page that functions as the running trade-press record of the MDL; its entries include the December 18, 2023 report that "Volkswagen has agreed to settle infringement claims from Neo Wireless over a group of patents for in-vehicle cellular technology," and a February 21, 2024 report that Judge Terrence Berg "wouldn't stay multidistrict litigation by Neo Wireless alleging multiple auto companies infringed its in-vehicle cellular technology while the automakers wait for reviews of the underlying patents."

The most patent-specific '512 reporting comes from Law360's Andrew Karpan, reprinted by Sterne Kessler, on May 3, 2023: Volkswagen persuaded the PTAB to institute review of the '512 patent, which the article describes as covering "cell-specific and common pilot subcarriers in multi-carrier, multi-cell wireless communication networks" that Volkswagen cars allegedly use "to comply with a '3GPP LTE standard specification.'" Karpan quoted Administrative Patent Judge Hyun Jung's institution opinion on beam-forming and noted the patent-at-issue as U.S. Patent No. 10,965,512, with counsel identified as Sterne Kessler for Volkswagen and Lowenstein & Weatherwax and Caldwell Cassady & Curry for Neo Wireless. On the termination side, the Feb. 7, 2024 PTAB termination of IPR2022-01539 (after Ford, GM, Nissan, Tesla and Honda joined and Neo dismissed the '512 claims with prejudice by joint stipulation on January 22, 2024) appears in the public PTAB record but I found no substantive press article covering the '512 dismissal itself; Law360's case-page entry for that period focuses on Volkswagen's earlier settlement and the stay fight.

The most-covered Neo Wireless PTAB development is a sister patent, not the '512. Bloomberg Law reported on Sept. 4, 2025 that "[t]he Patent Trial and Appeal Board said that challenged claims of Neo Wireless LLC's patent that discloses a method and system for a multi-carrier packet communication with reduced overhead aren't unpatentable as obvious over prior art, in an inter partes review by Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC, and Nissan North America Inc." Law360 headlined the same development "Automakers Fail In PTAB Bid To Ax Neo Wireless Patent," noting the twist that "the former patent office director undid the board's refusal to institute review." Analysis of those rulings, including the Nov. 1, 2024 and Sept. 3, 2025 final written decisions on the '450 patent, appeared in a Sheppard Mullin client alert republished by the National Law Review and Lexology on Sept. 10, 2025, which framed the outcomes as "a setback for automakers" and went beyond the record with litigator takeaways — that IPR estoppel limits automakers' district-court invalidity options, that multiple Patent Office wins for Neo "raise the costs of a defense and increase settlement pressure for accused infringers," and that defendants should develop "device prior art" outside IPR estoppel.

Reporting beyond the court record is mostly of this analyst/strategy variety rather than executive or market commentary. PatSnap has published machine-assisted litigation write-ups on Neo Wireless's Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz suits that describe the portfolio as "4G/LTE and 5G standard-essential-adjacent," call the threat to connected-vehicle makers "ongoing," and note that the six-patent asserti

Sources

Plaintiff representatives

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Defendant representatives

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