IoT Innovations LLC v. Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-02375-ELR (N.D. Ga., June 1, 2023)

Austin, Texas-based IoT Innovations LLC (“IoT”) brought suit in the Northern District of Georgia alleging infringement of six patents directed toward various systems and methods used to operate smart home devices, like wireless lighting controllers. IoT currently has a similar lawsuit pending against SimpliSafe, Inc. in the District of Massachusetts, IoT Innovations LLC v. SimpliSafe, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-10352-RGS (D.Mass., Feb. 17, 2023), and another against Monitronics International, Inc. in the Eastern District of Texas, IoT Innovations LLC v. Monitronics International, Inc., Civil Action No. 2:22-cv-00432-JRG-RSP (E.D. Tex., Nov. 4, 2022).

In the Complaint, IoT asserts Leviton infringed at least one claim of each of six asserted patents by offering for sale and instructing how to use the accused products, including Decora® Smart Switches, Dimmers, Plugs, Motion Sensors, Outlets, Smart Scene Controller Switches, Smart Fan Speed Controllers, Leviton Smart Load Center, the Leviton Smart Breaker, Smart Breaker Data Hub, My Leviton Cloud Service, My Leviton App, and all associated applications and software. Complaint, ¶¶ 16-18.

The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,567,580, RE44,742, 7,474,667, RE44,191, 7,983,282, and 7,209,876. Five of the patents are directed to an improvement related to the function and operation of methods and systems for communication and messaging between several communication devices. The sixth patent is directed to a method of searching electronic information repositories and retrieving relevant results using queries built from natural language. For example, the Complaint asserts the ‘876 patent is infringed when the Decora Smart® Voice Dimmer receives the expression, “Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights,” and responds, “Okay, turning on the kitchen lights.” Id. at ¶ 86.

The case has been assigned to Judge Eleanor L. Ross.