This page is the campaign hub for Torus Ventures LLC's September 4, 2026 filings in Midland/Odessa. The complaints are short four-page forms with the patent and a claim chart attached. The dockets for Nos. 7:26-cv-00350 through 7:26-cv-00360 each show the case assigned to Judge David Counts on September 4, 2026, under the court's order assigning patent cases.
The patent
U.S. Patent 7,457,968, Method and System for a Recursive Security Protocol for Digital Copyright Control, issued November 25, 2008. Claim 1 covers a method for a security protocol for protecting digital content: obtaining a first decryption algorithm from a first bit stream, decrypting the rest of that bit stream with it, obtaining a second decryption algorithm from the decrypted result, and using the second algorithm to decrypt the rest of a second bit stream. The complaints allege that Torus is the assignee of all right, title, and interest in the patent and that each defendant directly infringed at least the exemplary method claims identified in its claim chart. The chart filed in the Helper Bees case compares claims 1, 2, and 4 through 10 with that company's website, alleging that the site uses the TLS 1.3 security protocol.
The suits
Status is as each docket shows it through November 1, 2026.
| No. | Defendant | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 7:26-cv-00350 | Chuy's Opco, Inc. | Response deadline extended to November 2, 2026 by order of September 28, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00351 | Citizens, Inc. | Served October 7, 2026; motion for more time to answer filed October 27 and an order on it entered October 28, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00352 | Ethos Technologies Inc. | Answer and counterclaim October 1, 2026; order dismissing the case on the joint stipulation October 5, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00353 | Insurance Zebra, Inc. | Response deadline extended to November 16, 2026 by order of September 21, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00354 | National Western Life Insurance Company | Latest docket entries: summons issued and standing order, September 4, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00355 | netQuote, Inc. | Response deadline extended to November 4, 2026 by order of October 6, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00356 | Sana Benefits, Inc. | Return of service filed September 18, 2026; the clerk entered a deficiency notice on it the same day. |
| 7:26-cv-00357 | Success Foods Management Group, LLC | Notice of voluntary dismissal September 21, 2026; order September 22, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00358 | Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. | Answer and counterclaim September 21, 2026; joint stipulation of dismissal October 5 and order signed October 6, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00359 | The First National Bank of McGregor | Served September 11, 2026 (ECF No. 8); on its unopposed motion of September 29 (ECF No. 9), a September 30, 2026 text order extended its response deadline to November 16, 2026. |
| 7:26-cv-00360 | The Helper Bees, Inc. | Response deadline extended to November 2, 2026 by order of September 23, 2026. |
Status across the campaign
Three cases have ended. Torus voluntarily dismissed the Success Foods Management Group case, and the court entered an order on September 22, 2026. Ethos Technologies and Summit Hotel Properties each answered with a counterclaim against Torus, and each case then ended on a joint stipulation of dismissal filed October 5, 2026. Before the Summit dismissal, Judge Counts referred that case to Magistrate Judge Derek T. Gilliland, who set an initial pretrial conference. Chuy's Opco, The Helper Bees, netQuote, Insurance Zebra, and The First National Bank of McGregor obtained unopposed extensions of their response deadlines to dates in November 2026, and a motion for more time to answer was filed in the Citizens case on October 27.
What to watch next
Watch for answers or Rule 12 motions from Chuy's Opco and The Helper Bees (due November 2, 2026), netQuote (November 4), and Insurance Zebra and The First National Bank of McGregor (November 16), for a response from Citizens, and for service in the National Western Life Insurance Company case. Any of these cases can end at any time, including by settlement or voluntary dismissal.