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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

WACO DIVISION

WSOU INVESTMENTS, LLC d/b/a 

BRAZOS LICENSING AND 

DEVELOPMENT,

Plaintiff,

v.

MICROSOFT CORPORATION,

Defendant.

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CIVIL ACTION NO. 6:20-cv-332

JURY TRIAL DEMANDED

ORIGINAL COMPLAINT FOR PATENT 

INFRINGEMENT

Plaintiff WSOU Investments, LLC d/b/a Brazos Licensing and Development (“Brazos” or 

“Plaintiff”), by and through its attorneys, files this Complaint for Patent Infringement against 

Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft” or “Defendant”) and alleges:

NATURE OF THE ACTION

1. This is a civil action for patent infringement arising under the Patent Laws of 

the United States, 35 U.S.C. §§ 1, et seq., including §§ 271, 281, 284, and 285.

THE PARTIES

2. Brazos is a limited liability corporation organized and existing under the laws 

of Delaware, with its principal place of business at 605 Austin Avenue, Suite 6, Waco, Texas

76701.

3. On information and belief, Defendant Microsoft Corporation is incorporated 

under the laws of Washington State with its principal place of business at 1 Microsoft Way, 

Redmond, Washington 98052. Microsoft may be served with process through its registered agent 

Corporation Service Company, 211 East 7th Street, Suite 620, Austin, Texas 78701.

Case 6:20-cv-00332 Document 1 Filed 04/27/20 Page 1 of 19
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4. On information and belief, Microsoft has been registered to do business in the 

state of Texas under Texas SOS file number 0010404606 since about March 1987.

5. On information and belief, Microsoft has had regular and established places of 

business in this judicial district since at least as early as 2002.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

6. This is an action for patent infringement which arises under the Patent Laws of 

the United States, in particular, 35 U.S.C. §§ 271, 281, 284, and 285.

7. This Court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this action under 28 U.S.C.

§§ 1331 and 1338(a).

8. This Court has specific and general personal jurisdiction over Microsoft pursuant 

to due process and/or the Texas Long Arm Statute, because Microsoft has committed acts giving 

rise to this action within Texas and within this judicial district. The Court’s exercise of jurisdiction 

over Microsoft would not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice because 

Microsoft has established minimum contacts with the forum. For example, on information and 

belief, Microsoft has committed acts of infringement in this judicial district, by among other things, 

selling and offering for sale products that infringe the asserted patent, directly or through 

intermediaries, as alleged herein.

9. Venue in the Western District of Texas is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§1391

and/or 1400(b). 

10. This district was deemed to be a proper venue for patent cases against Microsoft 

in actions bearing docket numbers: 6-19-cv-00572 (Zeroclick, LLC v. Microsoft Corporation ); 6-

19-cv-00687 (Exafer, Ltd. v. Microsoft Corporation.); 6-19-cv-00399 (Neodron Ltd. v. Microsoft 

Corporation).

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11. On information and belief, Microsoft maintains a variety of regular and 

established business locations in the judicial district including its Corporate SalesOffice Locations, 

Retail Store Locations, and Datacenter Locations.

12. On information and belief, Microsoft operates multiple corporate sales offices in 

the judicial district, and these offices constitute regular and established places of business.

13. On information and belief, Microsoft employs hundreds of employees within its 

corporate sales offices located in the judicial district.

14. On information and belief, Microsoft has an established place of business in this 

judicial district known as “Corporate Sales Office: Austin” located at 10900 Stonelake Boulevard, 

Suite 225, Austin, Texas 78759 and “Microsoft Retail Store: The Domain” located at 3309 

Esperanza Crossing, Suite 104 Austin, Texas 78758. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/officelocator?Location=78759

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15. On information and belief, Microsoft’s “Corporate Sales Office: Austin” and 

“Microsoft Retail Store: The Domain” locations were respectively assessed by the Travis County 

Appraisal District in 2019 to have a market values of over $2.3 million dollars and $2.7 million 

dollars.

http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/SearchResults.aspx

16. On information and belief, Microsoft has another established place of business 

in this judicial district known as “Corporate Sales Office: San Antonio” located at Concord Park 

II, 401 East Sonterra Boulevard, Suite 300, San Antonio, Texas 78258.

Source: Google Maps

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17. On information and belief, Microsoft owns and operates multiple datacenters in 

the judicial district, including without limitation data centers located at 5150 Rogers Road, San 

Antonio, Texas 78251; 5200 Rogers Road, San Antonio, Texas 78251; 3823 Weisman Boulevard, 

San Antonio, Texas 78251; and 15000 Lambda Drive, San Antonio, Texas 782245.

18. On information and belief, Microsoft utilizes its datacenter locations in this 

judicial district as regular and established places of business. As a non-limiting example, the data 

centers in San Antonio are referred to within Microsoft as “US Gov Texas.” 

19. On information and belief, thousands of customers who rely on the infringing 

datacenter infrastructure that Microsoft’s engineering and operations teams have built, reside in 

this judicial district.

COUNT ONE - INFRINGEMENT OF 

U.S. PATENT NO. 9,814,988

20. Brazos re-alleges and incorporates by reference the preceding paragraphs of this 

Complaint.

21. On November 14, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office duly and 

legally issued U.S. Patent No. 9,814,988 (“the ’988 Patent”), entitled “Games Console Adaptor 

Unit.” A true and correct copy of the ’988 Patent is attached as Exhibit A to this Complaint.

22. Brazos is the owner of all rights, title, and interest in and to the ’988 Patent, 

including the right to assert all causes of action arising under the ’988 Patent and the right to any 

remedies for the infringement of the ’988 Patent.

23. Microsoft makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, imports, and/or distributes in the 

United States, including within this judicial district, products such as, but not limited to, certain 

Case 6:20-cv-00332 Document 1 Filed 04/27/20 Page 5 of 19
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Xbox consoles, including the Xbox One X and Xbox One S series consoles (collectively, the 

“Accused Products”).

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/consoles/all-consoles

24. The Accused Products include a console housing, which includes USB 3.0 ports

allowing a connection to an external hard drive.

https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

Case 6:20-cv-00332 Document 1 Filed 04/27/20 Page 6 of 19
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https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/storage/manage-storage

25. The Accused Products allow a disc to be inserted to install a game product. The 

disc is inserted into an optical drive in the gaming console.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2nhicxroQ

26. The Accused Products have an interface (HDMI Out port) for connecting a 

display, such as a television (“TV”), to the gaming console.

https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

Case 6:20-cv-00332 Document 1 Filed 04/27/20 Page 8 of 19
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https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

27. The Accused Products receive user input via hand-held controllers and can be 

connected to controllers wirelessly and/or via cables connecting controllers to the USB ports in 

the console.

https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/controller/connect-a-wireless-controller

Case 6:20-cv-00332 Document 1 Filed 04/27/20 Page 9 of 19
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https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

28. The Accused Products include a Central Processing Unit (CPU) that can process 

user input in the context of a game loaded using the optical drive to generate a game video output

transmitted to a display (on a TV, for example) using the HDMI out port.

https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2nhicxroQ

https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/controller/connect-a-wireless-controller

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https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

29. The CPU in the Accused Products can save game progress to an external hard 

drive connected to the console via the USB 3.0 ports in the console, including upon a user request 

to save the game.

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https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/storage/manage-storage

https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

30. The Accused Products have built-in memory to store software modules used by 

the CPU to execute various processes.

https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

31. When the Accused Products access a game stored on the external hard drive, 

encoded game data along with a video player software module for the stored game is sent to the 

console and stored in the console. The encoded game data is decoded with the help of the video 

player software module and is displayed via the display interface. 

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https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/storage/manage-storage

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https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/cloud-game-saves-faq

32. The Accused Products allow a user to resume a game from where the user has 

left off on the last save stored to the external hard drive. Based on user input, the CPU can transmit 

a request to the external hard drive for corresponding game history data which is retrieved and 

used to resume the play of the game from the saved position.

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https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/cloud-game-saves-faq

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIjrIRYlAeU&t=841s

33. In view of preceding paragraphs, each and every element of at least claim 20 of

the ’988 Patent is found in the Accused Products.

34. Microsoft has and continues to directly infringe at least one claim of the ’988

Patent, literally or under the doctrine of equivalents, by making, using, selling, offering for sale, 

importing, and/or distributing the Accused Products in the United States, including within this 

judicial district, without the authority of Brazos.

35. Microsoft has received notice and actual or constructive knowledge of the ’988

Patent since at least the date of service of this Complaint.

36. Since at least the date of service of this Complaint, through its actions, Microsoft 

has actively induced product makers, distributors, retailers, and/or end users of the Accused 

Products to infringe the ’988 Patent throughout the United States, including within this judicial 

district, by, among other things, advertising and promoting the use of the Accused Products in 

various websites, including providing and disseminating product descriptions, operating manuals, 

and other instructions on how to implement and configure the Accused Products. Examples of 

such advertising, promoting, and/or instructing include the documents at:

• https://www.xbox.com/en-us/consoles/xbox-one-x

• https://www.xbox.com/en-IN/consoles/xbox-one-x#techSpecs

• https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/storage/manage-storage

• https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/controller/connect-awireless-controller

• https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/cloudgame-saves-faq

• https://www.xbox.com/en-US/consoles/all-consoles

• https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/cloudgame-saves-faq

37. Since at least the date of service of this Complaint, through its actions, Microsoft

has contributed to the infringement of the ’988 Patent by having others sell, offer for sale, or use 

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the Accused Products throughout the United States, including within this judicial district, with

knowledge that the Accused Products infringe the ’988 Patent. The Accused Products are 

especially made or adapted for infringing the ’988 Patent and have no substantial non-infringing 

use. For example, in view of the preceding paragraphs, the Accused Products contain functionality 

which is material to at least one claim of the ’988 Patent.

JURY DEMAND

Brazos hereby demands a jury on all issues so triable.

REQUEST FOR RELIEF

WHEREFORE, Brazos respectfully requests that the Court:

(A) Enter judgment that Microsoft infringes one or more claims of the ’988 Patent 

literally and/or under the doctrine of equivalents;

(B) Enter judgment that Microsoft has induced infringement and continues to induce 

infringement of one or more claims of the ’988 Patent;

(C) Enter judgment that Microsoft has contributed to and continues to contribute to 

the infringement of one or more claims of the ’988 Patent;

(D) Award Brazos damages, to be paid by Microsoft in an amount adequate to 

compensate Brazos for such damages, together with pre-judgment and postjudgment interest for the infringement by Microsoft of the ’988 Patent through 

the date such judgment is entered in accordance with 35 U.S.C. §284, and 

increase such award by up to three times the amount found or assessed in 

accordance with 35 U.S.C. §284;

(E) Declare this case exceptional pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §285; and

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(F) Award Brazos its costs, disbursements, attorneys’ fees, and such further and 

additional relief as is deemed appropriate by this Court.

Dated: April 27, 2020 Respectfully submitted,

/s/ James L. Etheridge

James L. Etheridge

Texas State Bar No. 24059147 

Ryan S. Loveless

Texas State Bar No. 24036997 

Travis L. Richins

Texas State Bar No. 24061296

ETHERIDGE LAW GROUP, PLLC

2600 E. Southlake Blvd., Suite 120 / 324

Southlake, Texas 76092

Telephone: (817) 470-7249

Facsimile: (817) 887-5950

Jim@EtheridgeLaw.com

Ryan@EtheridgeLaw.com

Travis@EtheridgeLaw.com

COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF

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