Assignment history

Inventors

• Matthew Sharifi: Employed by Google LLC (or Google Inc. at the time of the initial assignment, which later became Google LLC through a name change). The patent application was filed on November 9, 2016, and the inventor assigned their interest to Google Inc. on the same date.

Original assignee

The entity named as the original assignee on the issued patent is Google LLC. Google LLC is a major operating company primarily in the business of internet-related services and products, including consumer electronics that embody hotword detection technology (e.g., Google Assistant-enabled devices). Google LLC is currently an operating company.

Assignment timeline

• 2016-11-09 (executed) / recorded 2016-11-14 — Reel 039014/0827

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: SHARIFI, MATTHEW
  • Assignee: GOOGLE INC.
  • Correspondent: C/O GOOGLE INC. 1600 AMPHITHEATRE PKWY. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Inventor assigned patent rights to the corporate entity.

• 2017-10-05 (executed) / recorded 2017-10-10 — Reel 041838/0348

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: GOOGLE INC.
  • Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
  • Correspondent: C/O GOOGLE INC. 1600 AMPHITHEATRE PKWY. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Internal corporate reorganization and name change from Google Inc. to Google LLC.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10134398
    2016 : Filed by Matthew Sharifi
         : Assigned to Google Inc.
    2017 : Assigned to Google LLC
    2018 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The transfers are between the inventor and Google Inc., and then an internal transfer due to a corporate name change to Google LLC. Both are operating entities.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Google LLC is not a known patent asserter (NPE) in the context of this patent.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. The correspondent "C/O GOOGLE INC. 1600 AMPHITHEATRE PKWY. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043" appears on both recorded assignments (Reel 039014/0827 and Reel 041838/0348). This is consistent with internal corporate transactions.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two transfers, occurring about 11 months apart, which are related to an initial inventor assignment and a subsequent corporate name change, not rapid successive transfers through different shell entities.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The assignments occurred in 2016 and 2017. The earliest known litigation for this patent family (IPR2023-00118) was filed in 2023, well after these transfers.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Google LLC is an active, operating company and did not acquire this patent through a bankruptcy sale.
7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence suggesting Google LLC transferred this patent to an NPE to assert on its behalf.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains with Google LLC, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent's ownership chain shows the inventor assigning rights to Google Inc., followed by an internal transfer due to a corporate name change to Google LLC (Reel 039014/0827 and Reel 041838/0348). Google LLC is an operating company that manufactures and sells products embodying hotword detection technology. The presence of a repeat correspondent is consistent with internal corporate filings. The patent is actively litigated, as evidenced by the IPR proceeding and subsequent Federal Circuit appeal, by the operating company itself.

USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html?qs=10134398