American and Southwest just made inflight Wi-Fi free. Now a patent-aggregation firm that makes money by licensing IP and suing those they say are using it without authorization is trying to turn “free” into “pay us anyway.”
Intellectual Ventures is suing both airlines, claiming their onboard internet setups and related backend systems infringe a portfolio of patents. The timing is perfect: when airlines charge for Wi-Fi, a royalty can be hidden inside the fee. When Wi-Fi is free, any payout comes straight out of the airline’s pocket.
In the American case, a federal judge in East Texas just ordered the airline to turn over pre-suit technical discovery—including documents and source code—so the plaintiffs can pursue past damages.
Free inflight Wi-Fi is finally turning into a baseline expectation, and in the last few months American and Southwest joined Delta and JetBlue in making it free. American is rolling it out now. Southwest flipped the switch in late October.
And a patent-aggregation shop that “acquires and asserts patents” for a living and is “widely perceived” in the IP world as an archetypal modern “patent troll” is suing American and also Southwest claiming their inflight connectivity setups (and related backend tech) infringe a portfolio of patents.
The American case has been running since November 2, 2024 and now covers 12 asserted patents (an original six plus six more added in a September 2025 amended complaint).
The judge denied American’s partial motion to dismiss. American also tried to carve out (and stay) the parts tied to Viasat’s inflight connectivity systems but that was denied as well. And this week, the court ordered American to produce pre-suit discovery of technical documents and source code within seven days.
Intellectual Ventures filed the Southwest case the same day as the American case. That case is now in the Northern District of Texas.
They’re claiming ownership of specific ways of:
- Getting bandwidth onboard and distributing it.
- “Method and System for High Data Rate Multi-Channel WLAN Architecture” — higher throughput Wi-Fi by using multiple channels and channel bonding in order to serve the whole cabin.
- “Satellite Distributed High Speed Internet Access” — satellite backhaul feeding an onboard hotspot system for passengers.
- Passenger portal and authentication. So it’s a combination of vendor hardware and network with airline-operated systems (login, authentication, access) that’s begin argued as infringing.
- A bunch of computer and cloud computing technologies. The original complaint listed “Root Image Caching and Indexing for Block-Level Distributed Application Management” “Load Balancing with Shared Data” “Asynchronous Messaging Using a Node Specialization Architecture in the Dynamic Routing Network” “Secure Virtual Community Network System”
Intellectual Ventures is the classic patent troll model: acquire huge portfolios of patents, license and litigate. They describe themselves as a “portfolio owner” with tens of thousands of patents. A win for them would turn ‘free’ into ‘sponsored, but taxed’ turning a consumer-friendly feature into a royalty stream.
Gary, When do these patents expire?
A lot of companies try to implement systems without paying the royalties on intellectual property. Let us see how the courts rule.
And you wonder why the majority of people hate lawyers!
Where is J. Cheever Loophole when he’s needed?
Welp, time to fight that lawsuit… what’s the ole health insurance playbook? Delay, Deny, Defend. And appeal, appeal. Or, counter-sue, sanction, defame, and send out your goons, like Boeing did to those whistleblowers…
When something is stolen it is stolen, not free. Without disproving the patents you have no basis for saying that stolen property is not being fenced. Patent thief, not patent troll.
“when airlines charge for Wi-Fi, a royalty can be hidden inside the fee. When Wi-Fi is free, any payout comes straight out of the airline’s pocket.”
Total economic nonsense. There is no WiFi fairy.
Intellectual Ventures is Nathan Myrvold’s firm. Dude wasn’t content making billions as an early Microsoft employee. He turned into a mega patent troll.