The complaint
The East Texas case is Valtrus Innovations Limited v. Markley Network Services LLC, No. 2:26-cv-00792-JRG (E.D. Tex.). It began in the District of Massachusetts, Eastern Division, as No. 1:26-cv-13811, where the ten-page complaint of Valtrus Innovations Ltd. and Key Patent Innovations Ltd. v. Markley LLC, Markley Management, Inc., Markley Network Services LLC, Markley Cloud Services LLC was filed August 18, 2026 with a jury demand. The Massachusetts docket shows the case transferred to the Eastern District of Texas on September 4, 2026 under conditional transfer order number 2 in MDL No. 3190, and the East Texas docket shows it received on September 8, 2026. The complaint alleges, on information and belief, that the four Markley defendants work together as a joint enterprise that owns, manages, and operates two Massachusetts data centers.
What the patents cover
U.S. Patent 6,854,287 is titled Cooling system and issued February 15, 2005. Claim 1 covers a method of cooling a room housing computer systems by providing heat exchanger units that receive air from and deliver air to the room, supplying them with cooling fluid from an air conditioning unit, sensing temperatures in the room, and controlling the cooling-fluid temperature or the units' air delivery in response, where controlling air delivery includes individually manipulating the mass flow rate of cooling fluid supplied to each unit.
U.S. Patent 6,868,682 is titled Agent based control method and system for energy management and issued March 22, 2005. Claim 1 covers a method of controlling data-center temperature by receiving temperature sensory data from a subsystem, processing it with a first agent in a hierarchy of agents to determine whether the subsystem is within a predetermined temperature range, adjusting a cooling-fluid delivery rate with the first agent to keep it in range, and requesting a second agent in the hierarchy to process the data when the first agent cannot keep the temperature in range unless the second agent redistributes the cooling fluid to one or more areas of the data center.
U.S. Patent 6,718,277 is titled Atmospheric control within a building. The complaint describes it as directed to controlling atmospheric conditions within a data center building and asserts claim 1 with an exemplary claim chart.
What the lawsuit is about
Valtrus alleges that the defendants infringed claim 1 of each patent by performing cooling methods in their data centers before the patents expired, using cooling equipment and software from third-party suppliers, and it attaches exemplary claim charts as Exhibits 4 through 11. It alleges that its counsel wrote to the defendants' chief executive on January 9, 2025 offering a license and enclosing claim charts, and that the defendants did not respond. A footnote states that Valtrus is not asserting the '287 patent against one supplier's equipment because of a representation it made to the Eastern District of Texas in connection with consolidating pending cases. The prayer asks for damages for past infringement with interest, attorneys' fees, and other relief.
What to watch next
The defendants answered the complaint and filed counterclaims on October 8, 2026 (ECF No. 25). The docket shows an entry titled Response to Non-Motion on October 26, 2026 (ECF No. 26). Watch for MDL scheduling orders.