There are currently 4 cases pending involving Max Sound, none of which are patent infringement cases – although 3 relate to patent claims. None of these cases can lead to a money judgment in Max Sound’s favor. None of them can lead to a money judgment in anyone’s favor in the 1st quarter of 2019. Whatever a settlement license is, it won’t be ordered in any of these proceedings.
1. Max Sound v. Google LLC (Federal Circuit US Court of Appeals 0-18 cvpri-1039).
This is an appeal of the initial affirmation of the award of lawyer’s fees against Max Sound for bringing a patent infringement lawsuit against Google without standing. That judgment was in Max Sound v. Google (California Northern District 5:14-cv-04412), and the appeal affirming the judgment is Max Sound v. Google (Federal Circuit US Court of Appeals 016-cvpri-01620). Max Sound sued for patent infringement and lost, then it appealed, and lost the appeal. Then a judgment was awarded in Google’s favor to compensate them for their expenses.
No date has yet been set on the appeal of that judgment. It is set to be heard by the same panel hearing Vedanti Licensing Limited v. Google (Federal Circuit US Court of Appeal 0:17-bcaag-02189). That is an appeal of a ruling by the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board, determining that key components of the Optimized Data Transmission Patent now assigned to Vedanti Licensing Ltd and said to be “shared” by Max Sound is invalid.
2. Google LLC v. Max Sound (California Southern District 3:18-cv-02815)
This is an action taken by Google to recover the judgment registered in the Southern District because it was believed Max Sound had assets there. So far only trivial assets have been located. There has been an examination of the CEO has part of these collection proceedings. It is now litigating on a dispute about production of records of the company, as Google contends Max Sound has failed to produce documents required by subpoena.
3. Max Sound v. Google (California Northern District 5:14-cv-04412)
This is the proceeding which resulted in the award against Max Sound for fees. There is now an application pending to add the Chairman and CFO, and the CEO as judgment debtors on the contention that Max Sound is a sham company and really the alter ego for its officers. That application is scheduled for February 7th, 2019.
4. Attia et al. v. Google LLC et al. (California Northern District 5:17-cv-06037)
Max Sound is not the plaintiff. It was the plaintiff in the original action, but it withdrew its claim. It is now described as the litigation funding entity. This is an action under RICO, as well as breach of trade secrets. The fifth version of the claim is now under consideration, with a hearing scheduled for February 14th, 2019 on Google’s motion to dismiss the fifth amended claim in its entirety. The Fourth amended claim was the subject of a successful motion to dismiss its RICO component. The fifth amended claim presents a slightly new version of the RICO claim and repeats previous allegations concerning breach of trade secrets.
