On August 11, TikTok was sued in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by Virtual Creative Artists LLC (hereinafter referred to as “VCA”), an NPE based in Delaware.

VCA is accusing TikTok of infringing three of its patents related to electronic, multimedia content exchange.

The U.S Patent number of the disputed patents are No. 9,501,480, No. 9,477,665 and No. 10,339,576.

According to the complaint, TikTok operates an online platform that violates VCA’s exclusive right to commercialize its patented process for fielding media submissions, storing them in a computer, offering them to an audience for review, then rewarding end users for their submissions.

The Complaint also notes TikTok’s “For You” feed as evidence of direct infringement.

VCA is seeking damages, interests and relevant costs incurred by the alleged infringement.

Relevant reports show that VCA has also used the above patents to file separate lawsuits against several social media giants including Meta, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google since March 2022. 

In August 2022, Unified Patents, a member-based organization dedicated to reducing the number of non-practicing entity (NPE) assertions in specific technology areas, launched an invalidation challenge to the No. 10,339,576 patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

The PTAB instituted a trial on March 22, 2023. The result is still pending.