Litigation

Smart Lock, LLC v. August Home, Inc.

closed

2:16-cv-00690

Court: E.D. Tex. (Marshall Div.)
Filed: 2016-06-30

Patents at issue (1)

7012503

Plaintiffs (1)

π Smart Lock, LLC

Defendants (1)

Δ August Home, Inc.

Summary

Smart Lock, LLC sued August Home, Inc. in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, asserting US 7,012,503. The docket status is Closed; the narrative notes it was reported as settled/dismissed but not independently confirmed.

Case overview & background

Plain-language overview of the case: parties, accused product, patents at issue, and why the suit matters.

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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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Plaintiff representatives

Counsel of record for the plaintiff(s): attorneys, firms, and roles (lead counsel, of counsel, local counsel).

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Defendant representatives

Counsel of record for the defendant(s): attorneys, firms, and roles (lead counsel, of counsel, local counsel).

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Record id: 7012503-2-16-cv-00690 · edit in Admin

Further reading

Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014)
Bolting 'on a computer' onto an abstract business process doesn't make it patentable. Most software and business-method patents that look like 'doing X on a computer' don't survive when seriously challenged under Alice.
How patent trolls operate (and why the business model works)
A junk patent generates settlement income exactly the same way as a strong one, because nobody pays $1M to test a $200k demand. The mechanics matter because the failure modes — what makes assertion campaigns expensive or risky for the troll — are exactly where defendants find leverage.
What patent litigation actually costs (AIPLA Economic Survey)
It costs a few hundred dollars to file a patent complaint and a median of $1.5M-$3.2M to defend one through trial. That gap isn't a side effect of patent litigation — for a troll, it is the entire business model.
Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1996)
Claim construction is exclusively the court's job. The Markman hearing is the most consequential single ruling in nearly every patent case — and a defendant's best chance to end the litigation before trial.
Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (2002)
Narrow your claim during prosecution and you presumptively give up the equivalents in between. The presumption is rebuttable, but in practice the prosecution history is a defendant's gold mine.

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