Innovation Technologies Partners LP (ITP)—disclosed as a limited partnership between Pretium Legal Opportunities Fund GP, LLC and Intertrust Technologies Corporation—has filed its first lawsuit. In a Central District of California complaint, ITP accuses Disney (Hulu) (2:25-cv-10969) of infringing eight patents moved from Intertrust to ITP this past March. The accused product is the Hulu streaming service.
In a June article, RPX noted that assignment to ITP of a portfolio of 45 US patents, including the patents now in suit (8,793,808; 8,660,539; 9,355,157; 10,191,972; 10,776,831; 10,945,003; 11,599,912; 12,125,070). ITP describes the patents as variously related to controlling, managing, distributing, and/or rendering content as well as inserting advertisements into such content and collecting information about usage of it. The complaint introduces the patents by first introducing Intertrust: "Intertrust's ground-breaking digital rights management ('DRM') technology utilizes systems and policies that control the use and distribution of digital content, protecting intellectual property from unauthorized copying, sharing, and modification".
ITP was created in Delaware on March 25, 2025 but converted to a Texas entity after receiving the above assets, on April 24, 2025. There, it identified as its general partner Pretium Legal Opportunities Fund GP, LLC, itself formed in Delaware on January 21, 2022. The March 28, 2025 transfer of these patents follows a January 2024 assignment of nearly three dozen US patents to PLS IV, LLC (formed in Delaware on December 23, 2023), another entity tied to Pretium Partners, a New York-based investment management firm that a few years ago announced a move into the legal finance market.
Eric Bothwell signed for PLS IV, as its managing director. On social media, Bothwell indicates having been a managing director at Pretium Partners from May 2019 through January 2025, although he still tags himself as "Managing Director at Pretium Partners, LLC" and does not list a more current position (i.e., one picking up after January 2025). Then advertising a purported $26B assets under management, Pretium announced in September 2021 the addition of a "legal opportunities team" that planned to work to invest in "legal and commercial opportunities", including patent and other intellectual property matters. Matthew Cantor was tapped to lead the effort, with Charles (Chad) Schmerler to serve as "head of litigation finance".
This past March, RPX covered the formation in Delaware of a group of entities with names similar to PLS IV, as well as their litigation and/or funding activities. That group is just the tip of the iceberg. Pretium has been even busier, creating several funds: Pretium Legal Opportunities Fund, LP (on January 21, 2022); Pretium Legal Opportunities Master Fund, LP (on February 23, 2022); and Pretium Legal Opportunities Fund B, LP (on August 14, 2023). Pretium also appears to have been creating a stable of "holdings" entities (also in Delaware): Pretium Legal Opportunities Holdings, LLC on August 10, 2022; Pretium Legal Opportunities Holdings B[x] LLC on March 1, 2023, where x runs from 1-3; Pretium Legal Opportunities Holdings B[x] LLC on April 14, 2023, where x runs from 4-6; Pretium Legal Opportunities Offshore Holdings 2024-[x], LLC on February 14, 2024, where x runs from 1-5; and Pretium Legal Opportunities Offshore Holdings 2024-[x], LLC on October 16, 2024, where x runs from 6-7.
The Central District of California requires parties to file a certified list of those with a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the litigation. It is in its certification that ITP discloses that it is a limited partnership of Pretium Legal Opportunities Fund GP, LLC and Intertrust, further noting that ITP was formed in Texas and that no publicly held corporation owns ten percent of it.
The earlier forays into funding and litigation and the formation of the above "fund" and "holdings" infrastructure, suggests that Pretium's activities in the patent monetization space are just beginning—that the new case from ITP is one of many such efforts to come. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (US) LLP out of Redwood Shores, California filed the new complaint. The case has yet to be assigned to a judge. 11/14, Central District of California.
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