Modena Navigation LLC has launched a litigation campaign, suing Honda (2:25-cv-00494), Hyundai and Kia (2:25-cv-00496), Nissan (2:25-cv-00495), and Toyota (2:25-cv-00492) in the Eastern District of Texas. Each defendant is accused of infringing the same four former MiTAC patents through the provision of vehicles that incorporate infotainment and navigation systems. At issue are features such as adjusting display modes based on the time of day, lane navigation, "navigation condition" monitoring, and real-time information tracking. Modena Navigation appears to be part of a spinoff from a familiar patent monetization operation.
Modena Navigation was formed in Texas in September 2022. At formation, it named as its manager Alpha Alpha Intellectual Partners LLC (AAIP) and provided an Austin, Texas address. However, in its May 2023 annual report, it lists a Naples, Florida address and identifies as its president John Ferraro (who appears to live at the Naples address given). That representation is repeated in Modena Navigation's May 2024 annual report. John F. Ferraro is a CPA and a veteran of Ernst & Young, having apparently been its "Global Chief Operating Officer" from 2007 to 2015. After that, briefly in 2019, he was "the Executive Vice President, Strategy and Sales of Aquilon Energy Services, a software company for the energy industry".
John Ferraro is now a board member for IFF, "a leader in flavors, fragrances, food ingredients, health and biosciences". Among his "additional accomplishments" listed on the IFF public website is as "Founder of RP Intellectual Partners LLC (a successor to a part of Alpha Alpha Intellectual Properties, LLC), a firm investing in intellectual properties focused on technology". RP Intellectual Partners LLC was formed in Texas in November 2022, identifying John Ferraro as its manager, located at the Naples, Florida address. That representation has remained consistent since. Note that in November 2020, John Ferraro—together with Charles Ferraro and Thomas Schweitzer (each as a member)—formed in Florida Alpha Alpha Real Estate Partners LLC, an entity that was voluntarily dissolved in February 2022.
This background suggests John Ferraro's original involvement in the wider patent monetization activities of AAIP, which covers several other litigating patent plaintiffs, but a fallout between him and Charles Ferraro and/or Schweitzer occurred in the 2022 timeframe. Per state records, though, Modena Navigation would appear to have followed John Ferraro and therefore is "part of Alpha Alpha Intellectual Properties, LLC" to which RP Intellectual Partners is the "successor". Also sitting in that "part" seems to be Haptic Synergy LLC, another Texas entity created in September 2022 (the month of Modena's formation there). Its identified control tracks that of Modena: first AAIP, then John Ferraro to present.
Both Haptic Synergy (a dozen) and Modena Navigation (five) received patent assets from Omnislash Digital LLC on October 14, 2022. Omnislash Digital was formed in Texas in December 2021. At formation, it identified AAIP as its managing member. Since then, Omnislash Digital has listed Schweitzer as its manager. Signing the assignments of patents to Haptic and Modena, however, is Charles D. Ferraro, as Omnislash's "Authorized Signatory". AAIP itself was formed in Delaware in November 2017 by Thomas P. Schweitzer, but shortly thereafter, in December 2017, Schweitzer renounced AAIP's registration in Delaware, moving its state of formation to Wyoming.
Pre-2022 AAIP Monetization
Omnislash Digital has not directly filed any litigation to date. Other entities associated with AAIP have: Longhorn HD LLC (formed in Texas in 2018 and having initiated two litigation campaigns), Elite Gaming Tech LLC (formed in Texas in 2018 and having initiated two as well), NorthStar Systems LLC (formed in Texas in 2019 and having initiated one), Truesight Communications LLC (formed in Texas in 2021 and having litigated two campaigns), Lonestar Biometrics LLC (formed in Texas in 2022 and having initiated one), and Longhorn Automotive Group LLC (formed in Texas in 2023 and having initiated one).
At formation, Longhorn HD identified both AAIP and Schweitzer as its managers. Later, it indicated to the state of Texas that it is wholly owned by AAIP, as is Elite Gaming, further listing Charles Ferraro, John Ferraro, and Schweitzer as its members, as of May 2021. Thereafter, in state filings, it lists only Schweitzer, as its manager. This same pattern, roughly, holds as to Elite Gaming and NorthStar Systems: identifying AAIP and Schweitzer initially as managers; in May 2021, listing the Ferraros and Schweitzer as members; and thereafter, identifying only Schweitzer, as manager (sometimes also as director).
The monetization model for these first three plaintiffs parallel each other as well: acquire patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), file cases in the Eastern District of Texas with Fabricant LLP (and often Rubino IP) as litigation counsel, and dismiss those suits with prejudice prior to contesting any substantive issues. Per Texas state records, IV retains an interest in all of the litigation over the patents transferred to Longhorn HD, Elite Gaming Tech, and Northstar Systems, with the assigning IV subsidiaries identified as secured parties with respect to certain debt vehicles.
Longhorn HD's two litigation campaigns ran from May 2018 to October 2023 and from April 2019 to April 2023, respectively. As noted, all of its suits were filed in the Eastern District of Texas, where Longhorn HD disclosed AAIP as its parent company. Elite Gaming's two litigation campaigns were active from February 2020 to December 2023 and from August 2021 to October 2021, respectively. It disclosed to the Eastern District of Texas as well that AAIP is its corporate parent. The NorthStar Systems campaign ran from September 2020 to April 2024; it also disclosed AAIP as its parent to the Eastern District of Texas.
More detailed coverage of these campaigns can be found at "Omnislash Digital Positions Patents for Apparent Assertion" (November 2022).
Ongoing Monetization Still Under Schweitzer
At its December 2021 formation in Texas, Truesight listed its managing member as AAIP, with Charles signing for the entity on behalf of AAIP. Thereafter, Schweitzer has been identified to Texas as Truesight's manager. At its May 2022 formation, Lonestar Biometrics also listed AAIP as its managing member, thereafter identifying Schweitzer as its manager. At its September 2023 formation in Texas, Longhorn Automotive Group identified both AAIP and Schweitzer as managers. It has not filed an annual report since.
Public records confirm that Truesight Communications and Longhorn Automotive Group have secured backing from Chicago-based litigation funder Longford Capital Management. Longford has provided funding to a long list of patent plaintiffs over the last several years, including AGIS Software Development LLC (ASD), a subsidiary of AGIS Holdings Inc.; BillJCo LLC; G+ Communications, LLC; Jawbone Innovations, LLC; MemoryWeb LLC; and Proven Networks, LLC. For an overview of Longford's activities in the patent space, see here.
Though formed later than Truesight Communications, Lonestar Biometrics got to the courthouse first. Its asserted patents broadly concern scanning or capturing an image of a fingerprint through a display screen. In May 2021, original assignee and named inventor Darwin Hu assigned this patent family to JIG Technologies LLC, a Wyoming entity on behalf of which Schweitzer signed (as manager) on May 31, 2022 when ownership of the patents was moved to Lonestar Biometrics, which disclosed AAIP as its corporate parent. This litigation campaign lasted from June 2022 through October 2024 in the Eastern District of Texas. Public records do not confirm backing by a funder.
Longford-backed Truesight has two active litigation campaigns, the first begun in December 2023 and the second, in March 2024. All four of its cases have been filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Notably, however, Truesight does not identify AAIP as its corporate parent; rather, it indicates that it does not have a parent company and that no publicly traded company owns ten percent or more of its "stock". Truesight acquired its asserted patents, which generally relate to "storage and display of digital media", from an inventor-controlled entity in December 2021.
Longford-backed Longhorn Automotive Group has one active litigation campaign, begun in May 2024. All six of its cases have been filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Its bare corporate disclosures track those of Truesight, i.e., without identifying AAIP as a parent. This plaintiff picked up the portfolio from which it draws the asserted former IV patents from AI-CORE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, an entity tied to Ascend Innovation Management, LLC, an entity formed in Texas in September 2023 by IV licensing veterans Riad Chummun and James Weisfield.
At its March 2025 formation in Texas, Alpha Touch Group LLC identified AAIP as its manager, providing a new address for the entity, that of a residence in Darien, Connecticut that appears to be linked to Amy Mills Schweitzer, Schweitzer's spouse. Thomas Schweitzer signed the formation document. Publicly available USPTO records do not yet reflect the assignment of any patent assets to Alpha Touch Group.
Upshot
The Ferraros and Schweitzer appear to have been the "partners" in the "Alpha Alpha Intellectual Partners" entity, but John Ferraro seems to have left that enterprise, perhaps carrying with him just Modena and Haptic Synergy. It is unclear whether more monetization efforts will continue, perhaps through RP Intellectual Partners, and it is also unclear whether Charles Ferraro left with John or has remained a member of AAIP (or both). A Charles Ferraro identifies himself on social media as the CEO of Bayberry Capital Group, which "sources, acquires, renovates, develops, leases, and sells a diversified portfolio of residential and commercial properties. We target distressed properties, selective development sites, non-performing mortgage notes, and low LTV lending opportunities throughout New York and the Tri-state area". Schweitzer is otherwise of uncertain professional situation.
Omnislash Digital picked up Modena Navigation's patents-in-suit as part of a larger portfolio acquired from Allied Security Trust (AST) in December 2021. As noted, five were passed to Modena Navigation while Omnislash moved a dozen to Haptic Synergy, which has yet to sue over its received assets. The assignments to Modena Navigation and Haptic Synergy left five patents in Omnislash's possession, at least according to currently available USPTO assignment records.
Fabricant LLP and "Rubino IP" represent Modena Navigation. The suits have been assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. 5/6, Eastern District of Texas.
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