Not unusual at all during patent litigation... defendants will try everything to get out from having to pay licensing fees, including, but not limited to, request for USPTO Reexam of patents.. given there is some basis for said request, such as prior art not previously noted. Toshiba, NEC, Pubpat have requested the '336, '584' & '148 patents be reexamined.. Prior art was noted as the primary reason, and we are now in the middle of the proccess.. The Non-Final Action reports by the PTO basically reject those claims under question, and then TPL/PTSC/Moore get to submit rebuttal Amendments inorder to defend them and possibly even make them stronger.. With re to the '584, TPL/PTSC has already submitted their Amended Arguments, here's the filing..

http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/u...

TPL/PTSC/Moore actually added 25 claims to this patent... along with this very strongly stated rebuttal/defense..

I expect they will do the exact same for the '336 (2 claims in question) and the '148 (4 claims in question)... Not to be forgotten here is that during the Ex-Parte reexam process, only the PTO reexaminer & TPL/PTSC/Moore are together discussing/determining the outcome.. the questioning parties are not included.

Reexams are always requested.. it does not neccesarily mean the patents will be weaked or invalidated

regards