Assignment history

Based on a review of USPTO assignment records and public data for US patent 10,001,780, here is the full ownership and assertion analysis.

Inventors

• Borja Ibarz Gabardos: Employer at filing was Brain Corp.
• Jean-Baptiste Passot: Employer at filing was Brain Corp.

Both inventors assigned their interests to their employer, Brain Corp, as is standard practice. There are no unusual patterns suggesting inventor departure or a subsequent portfolio sale.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Brain Corp of San Diego, CA. Brain Corp is an active technology company that develops an AI software platform, BrainOS, to power autonomous mobile robots, including commercial floor scrubbers and vacuums. The company's products directly embody the patent's claims for "dynamic route planning in autonomous navigation." Brain Corp remains an operating entity.

Assignment timeline

Chronological list of every recorded assignment for US patent 10,001,780.

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• 2017-02-15 (executed) / recorded 2017-03-08 — Reel 040182/0104

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Borja Ibarz Gabardos, Jean-Baptiste Passot
  • Assignee: Brain Corporation
  • Correspondent: Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP, 2040 Main Street, Fourteenth Floor, Irvine, CA 92614
  • Context: Routine assignment from inventors to their employer.

• 2021-09-30 (executed) / recorded 2021-10-08 — Reel 062835/0638

  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Brain Corporation
  • Assignee: Hercules Capital, Inc.
  • Correspondent: PERKINS COIE LLP, 1900 Sixteenth Street, Suite 1400, Denver, CO 80202
  • Context: Securitization; the patent was pledged as collateral for a venture debt financing agreement with Hercules Capital, a known specialty finance company. This is a grant of a security interest, not a transfer of title.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10001780
    2016 : Nov 2 Application filed
    2017 : Feb 15 Assigned to Brain Corp
    2018 : Jun 19 Patent Issued
    2021 : Sep 30 Security interest granted to Hercules Capital

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The patent remains with the original assignee, Brain Corp, an active operating company. The only other party in the chain, Hercules Capital, Inc., is a well-known public finance company, not a shell LLC, and holds only a security interest per Reel 062835/0638.

2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Neither Brain Corp nor Hercules Capital, Inc. are on public lists of high-frequency patent assertion entities.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. The two recorded transfers were handled by two different major law firms, Knobbe Martens and Perkins Coie.

4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There has been only one transaction recorded since the initial inventor assignment: a security agreement in 2021.

5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The patent remains held by the original operating company. The security agreement of 2021 is unrelated to litigation initiated several years later. An IPR proceeding (IPR2025-01600) indicates litigation activity around 2025, long after the recorded assignment events.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present.

7. Privateering: Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a third-party asserter.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent's ownership chain is clean and shows no signals of NPE activity. The patent was developed and remains owned by Brain Corp, an operating company that commercializes products embodying the invention. A recorded security agreement with Hercules Capital, Inc. (Reel 062835/0638) is a standard financing event, not a transfer for assertion. Recent litigation activity indicates that Brain Corp is likely asserting the patent directly against competitors.

Verify at: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US 10001780