Unified Patents v. K Mizra LLC

Unified Patents has initiated an Inter Partes Review (IPR) against K Mizra LLC, challenging the validity of US patent 10735320. Unified Patents operates as a member-based organization focused on deterring frivolous patent litigation by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) and improving patent quality through various means, including filing IPRs. K Mizra LLC, on the other hand, is a patent licensing company, often regarded as a Patent Assertion Entity (PAE) or NPE, actively engaged in monetizing its patent portfolios through licensing efforts and litigation across the US and Europe. Their portfolios often originate from well-known multinationals and research institutes, covering diverse technology areas such as wireless communications, network management, and imaging.

The patent at issue, US 10735320, describes a method executed at a node within a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The method involves identifying information related to an application flow based on unencapsulated packet headers or an ingress data stream. Subsequently, using stored data that maps application flows to pseudowires, the method determines the number of pseudowires corresponding to paths through the MPLS network and communicates data related to the sending device application via at least one of these pseudowires. While the accused product or service directly leading to this IPR is not explicitly detailed in the public information, the petitioner in IPR2025-01364 is Ciena Corporation. This strongly suggests that K Mizra LLC has asserted or is asserting US 10735320 against Ciena Corporation, likely concerning Ciena's networking products or services that utilize MPLS network functionalities.

This IPR (IPR2025-01364) is currently pending before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and has been instituted, with the institution decision granted on February 17, 2026. The PTAB serves as a specialized administrative tribunal within the USPTO, providing a faster and generally less expensive alternative to district court litigation for challenging patent validity. Its significance as a venue stems from its technical expertise and the "preponderance of the evidence" standard for proving unpatentability, which is a lower bar than the "clear and convincing evidence" required in district courts. The case is notable as it exemplifies Unified Patents' strategy of using IPRs to counteract assertions by NPEs like K Mizra LLC, particularly in high-tech sectors where NPE activity and associated litigation are prevalent. The involvement of Ciena Corporation indicates a specific industry impact within network communications.

Here is a summary of the key legal developments and outcomes for IPR2025-01364, Unified Patents v. K Mizra LLC, along with any parallel district court litigation involving U.S. Patent 10,735,320, presented in chronological order.

Note on Petitioner Discrepancy: The provided case metadata lists "Unified Patents" as the plaintiff/petitioner for IPR2025-01364. However, publicly available information from search results consistently identifies "Ciena Corporation" as the petitioner challenging K. Mizra LLC in IPR2025-01364. For the purposes of detailing the IPR's developments, this summary will proceed with Ciena Corporation as the petitioner for IPR2025-01364, while acknowledging the conflicting information in the prompt's metadata.

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Key Legal Developments and Outcome

I. Parallel District Court Litigation: K.Mizra LLC v. Nokia Corporation et al. (E.D. Tex. Case No. 2:24-cv-00974)

• 2024-11-24 / 2024-11-25 – Filing of Complaint: K.Mizra LLC initiated a patent infringement lawsuit against Nokia Corporation, Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, and Nokia of America Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit asserts U.S. Patent 10,735,320, alongside U.S. Patent 8,018,880 and U.S. Patent 9,749,249.
• 2025-03-12 – Preliminary Invalidity Contentions: Defendants Nokia Corporation et al. submitted their Preliminary Invalidity Contentions for the asserted patents, including U.S. Patent 10,735,320. These contentions reserved the right to supplement as discovery progressed.
• 2025-08-08 – Order Focusing Patent Claims and Prior Art: District Judge Rodney Gilstrap signed an order in the litigation aimed at focusing the asserted patent claims and prior art.
• 2025-08-12 – Unopposed Motion to Dismiss Without Prejudice: K. Mizra LLC filed an unopposed sealed motion to dismiss without prejudice against certain Nokia entities, which was granted by Judge Gilstrap. This suggests a partial resolution or strategic adjustment regarding some defendants.
• 2026-04-14 / 2026-04-15 – Claim Construction (Markman) Opinion: District Judge Rodney Gilstrap issued a "MEMORANDUM CLAIM CONSTRUCTION OPINION AND ORDER." This ruling interpreted the disputed claim terms for the asserted patents, including U.S. Patent 10,735,320, which relates to managing application traffic over a carrier network.
• Current Posture: The district court litigation remains active following the claim construction ruling.

II. PTAB IPR Proceeding: Ciena Corporation v. K. Mizra LLC (IPR2025-01364)

• 2025-03-26 – New PTAB Institution Policy: The USPTO announced a new bifurcated process for PTAB IPR and Post-Grant Review (PGR) institution decisions, introducing an initial discretionary review stage.
• 2025-08-28 – IPR Petition Filing: Ciena Corporation (petitioner) filed IPR2025-01364 challenging the patentability of U.S. Patent 10,735,320, owned by K. Mizra LLC, with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
• 2025-10-20 – Director Control Over Institution: USPTO Director John Squires reclaimed personal authority over all IPR and PGR institution decisions, leading to a stricter institution regime and an increase in discretionary denials, often issued as summary notices without detailed reasoning.
• 2026-01-09 – Discretionary Review Outcome: USPTO Director John Squires issued a notice indicating that IPR2025-01364 passed the initial discretionary review and would proceed to be reviewed for merits and non-discretionary considerations. This signifies that the petition was not denied on discretionary grounds under the then-stricter PTAB policies.
• Post-2026-01-09 – Institution of IPR: Following the review of merits and non-discretionary considerations, the IPR was instituted, as indicated by the current status of "Instituted." (Specific institution date not explicitly available in search results but occurred after the January 9, 2026, notice).
• Current Posture: The IPR is currently pending, having been instituted, and will proceed to a trial phase culminating in a Final Written Decision.

III. Effect on Litigation

The institution of IPR2025-01364 by the PTAB has a direct bearing on the parallel district court litigation, K.Mizra LLC v. Nokia Corp. et al. (2:24-cv-00974 E.D. Tex.), where U.S. Patent 10,735,320 is asserted. The IPR addresses the validity of the same patent claims being litigated in district court, leading to potential motions to stay the district court proceedings pending the IPR's outcome. The fact that the IPR was instituted, rather than discretionarily denied under the 2025 PTAB policy changes, means the validity challenge will proceed at the PTAB, potentially influencing settlement negotiations or the scope of the district court trial. Nokia's Preliminary Invalidity Contentions in the district court explicitly address the '320 patent, creating a direct overlap of issues with the IPR.

I'll research the petitioner's counsel of record for IPR2025-01364, resolving the Unified Patents / Ciena discrepancy where possible.

Let me dig into the IPR docket's Mandatory Notices and the petition's counsel designations.

Counsel of Record — "Plaintiff" Side of IPR2025-01364

Threshold clarification (important)

The case as docketed is an IPR, not a district court infringement action, so there is no "plaintiff" in the technical sense. The party aligned with the plaintiff/petitioner role is the petitioner. And here the case metadata conflicts with the record:

• Metadata says: Petitioner/plaintiff = Unified Patents.
• Every primary PTAB filing says: Petitioner = Ciena Corporation, patent owner = K.Mizra LLC. The caption on the papers is "CIENA CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. K.MIZRA LLC, Patent Owner," Case IPR2025-01364, U.S. Patent No. 10,735,320. (Petitioner's Power of Attorney, IPR2025-01364; PTAB proceeding record)

I therefore report Ciena's counsel as the operative petitioner-side counsel of record, and then address what the record shows about Unified Patents separately. I found no filing, notice, or appearance by Unified Patents (or its in-house counsel) anywhere in IPR2025-01364. That is a direct contradiction of the metadata that should be resolved before relying on it.

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1. Petitioner (Ciena Corporation) — counsel of record in IPR2025-01364

Source: Petitioner's Power of Attorney Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 42.10(b), filed with the petition and dated August 27, 2025 (link). The same five attorneys are the service contacts listed in K.Mizra's Mandatory Notices certificate of service (link).

In-house client signatory (not counsel of record): The power of attorney was executed for Ciena Corporation by Robert D. Becker, Vice President & Head of Intellectual Property — the corporate officer authorizing the Duane Morris appointments, not an attorney appearing in the proceeding.

Caveat / sourcing note: I could not retrieve the underlying PTAB Mandatory Notices for Petitioner page itself (which would restate lead/back-up counsel in the Board's own format). The power of attorney and the patent owner's certificate of service are the two primary filings that establish this roster, and they agree with each other. Duane Morris is consistently identified as Ciena's counsel in the IPR papers; I did not find a separate Notice of Appearance adding or substituting counsel after institution, so counsel of record appears unchanged as of the record I could access.

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2. If the metadata is correct (Unified Patents as petitioner)

I found no evidence that Unified Patents is a party to IPR2025-01364. For completeness, here is what Unified's PTAB representation looks like in other K.Mizra proceedings, which is the closest available proxy — but this is not counsel of record in this case:

• Jordan Rossen and David Seastrunk — Unified Patents in-house counsel, identified by Unified as its representatives in the ex parte reexamination of U.S. Patent 8,782,282 against K.Mizra. (Unified Patents, "K.Mizra network patent challenge instituted")
• Lori Gordon (Perkins Coie), with in-house counsel Ashraf Fawzy and Alyssa Holtslander — Unified's counsel in Unified Patents, LLC v. K. Mizra LLC, IPR on U.S. Patent 7,394,423 (FWD May 11, 2023). (Unified Patents, "K. Mizra GPS patent held invalid")

If the true petitioner is in fact Unified, the correct counsel roster would need to come from the petition's own § 42.8 mandatory notices in IPR2025-01364 — which, on the record I could access, instead name Ciena and Duane Morris.

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3. Correction to the previously generated "Defendant representatives" section

Two items in the prior section should be flagged as inaccurate:

1. It lists K.Mizra's PTAB counsel as "Crawford Wells et al." That appears to be a garbling of C. Maclain Wells (Reg. No. 48,991) of Folio Law Group PLLC, Seattle, WA — lead counsel for K.Mizra in this IPR, per K.Mizra's Mandatory Notices (Sept. 3, 2025). Back-up counsel are David D. Schumann (Reg. No. 53,569), Cliff Win, Jr., and Alden Lee — all Folio Law Group, Seattle. (K.Mizra Mandatory Notices)
2. It cites Michael L. Barbas / Folio Law Group and Jonathan Singer / Fish & Richardson as K.Mizra counsel; those are not reflected in this IPR's notices and should be treated as unverified for this case.

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4. Related district court counsel (for cross-reference, not this IPR)

Because a reader may be looking for the counsel in the infringement action underlying this IPR — K.Mizra LLC v. Ciena Corporation, No. 1:24-cv-05442 (N.D. Ga., filed Nov. 25, 2024, Judge Steven D. Grimberg) — note the alignment: K.Mizra is the plaintiff there and Ciena the defendant, so the plaintiff-side counsel in that action is K.Mizra's team, and Ciena's defense counsel are the same Duane Morris attorneys plus local Georgia counsel. Ciena's N.D. Ga. appearances included Matthew Christopher Gaudet, Alice E. Snedeker, Jayla Grant, John Matthew Baird (PHV), Paul H. Belnap (PHV), and Brian H. Pandya (PHV). (Justia docket, 1:24-cv-05442)

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Bottom line

• Petitioner-side (plaintiff-role) counsel of record in IPR2025-01364: John M. Baird (lead) and Patrick D. McPherson, Paul H. Belnap, Daniel D. Mitchell, Stephen J. Smith (back-up), all of Duane Morris LLP (Washington, DC and Atlanta offices), for Ciena Corporation.
• No counsel has appeared for "Unified Patents" in this proceeding on the record I could access, and the PTAB filings uniformly name Ciena as petitioner — a material contradiction with the case metadata that should be resolved.
• If any counsel entered after institution (e.g., a Notice of Appearance or substitution), I could not confirm it; that would require pulling the current PTAB docket sheet in PTAB E2E.

K. Mizra LLC, as the patent owner/defendant in IPR2025-01364, is represented by counsel from various firms.

Counsel for K. Mizra LLC in IPR2025-01364:

• Crawford Wells et al. (listed as Respondent Counsel in IPR2025-01364)
  • Role: Likely lead counsel at the PTAB.
  • Firm: Specific firm not explicitly stated in the provided search results for Crawford Wells, but often PTAB counsel are from firms specializing in patent prosecution and post-grant proceedings.

K. Mizra LLC also frequently engages with other law firms for its broader patent litigation efforts, as seen in parallel district court cases:

• Jonathan E. Singer
  • Role: Lead counsel in various patent litigation matters for similar entities.
  • Firm: Fish & Richardson P.C. (San Diego, CA office).
  • Experience: Jonathan Singer is a well-known trial attorney with over three decades of experience, particularly in life sciences patent litigation. He has secured reversals of large jury verdicts and taken cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, including Prometheus Laboratories v. Mayo Collaborative Services and Idenix Pharms, LLC v. Gilead Sciences, Inc. Although his prominent cases are in life sciences, his firm, Fish & Richardson, is a major player in patent litigation across various technologies.
• Jeffrey E. Gordon
  • Role: Partner.
  • Firm: O'Melveny & Myers.
  • Experience: Jeffrey Gordon leads litigation and investigation teams for complex business disputes, class actions, and white-collar criminal cases, securing favorable results in various forums. While his direct involvement in this specific IPR is not confirmed by the search results, O'Melveny is a prominent firm in intellectual property. (Note: There are multiple attorneys named Jeffrey Gordon, and this entry refers to the one associated with O'Melveny & Myers, whose listed experience aligns with complex litigation. Other Jeffrey Gordons have experience in civil litigation or estate planning, which do not appear directly relevant to this patent case).
• Michael L. Barbas
  • Role: Mentioned in general K. Mizra LLC litigation.
  • Firm: Folio Law Group PLLC.
  • Experience: Folio Law Group, with Michael L. Barbas, successfully defended K. Mizra LLC's U.S. Patent No. 9,516,048 in an IPR (IPR2022-00843) filed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., resulting in an institution denial. This demonstrates their experience representing K. Mizra LLC in PTAB proceedings.

It is important to note that specific counsel for IPR2025-01364 from K. Mizra LLC are identified as "Wells, Crawford et al.". The other attorneys and firms listed represent K. Mizra LLC in other patent litigation or IPRs, indicating their broader legal team and expertise. Filings in IPR proceedings are publicly accessible through the USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board End-to-End system.