Throop LLC Sues Microsoft for Patent Infringement


On December 16, plaintiff Throop LLC filed a complaint against defendant Microsoft (Throop, LLC v. Microsoft Corporation 2:19-cv-10604) for patent infringement. The complaint was filed in the California Central District Court. Throop is represented by One.

The patents-in-suit are 7,035,897 (the “’897 Patent”) issued in 2006 and 9,479,726 (the “’726 Patent”) issued in 2016. Both patents are titled “Wireless Augmented Reality Communication System.” The complaint stated that Throop is the owner of these patents and the inventors were engineers for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The complaint alleged that Microsoft “manufactures, provides, uses, sells, offers for sale, imports and/or distributes infringing services for wearable devices, including, for example, Microsoft HoloLens.” Microsoft’s products infringe by “incorporating a highly integrated radio communication system allowing for true two-way multimedia access via a wearable device.” The complaint stated that Microsoft has had knowledge of these patents and their infringement. Microsoft has infringed without license or authorization.

Microsoft allegedly infringed upon the ’897 Patent because it infringed upon at least claim 1, “[a] mobile access unit for use in a localized communications system.” It includes “a video a video input configured to receive real-time video information; a video output configured to provide real-time video information; a wearable display connected to the video output; a codec connected to the video input and video output; and a transceiver.” The complaint alleged that the HoloLens infringes upon these points and others, including its transmission and streaming in claim 1 of the patent. Microsoft also infringed upon the ’726 Patent because it infringed on at least claims 1 and 25 of the Patent. 

Throop has sought judgment that Microsoft infringed, an injunction and compensation for damages.

Throop also sued Sony on the same day for patent infringement for the same patents, the ’897 and ’726 Patents.   Throop specifically mentioned Sony’s SmartEyeglass SED-SD1 as an example of an infringing product.