Patent 10136416

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

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Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Martin Warwick Beale (employer not determinable from patent text)

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC. The patent text does not provide information about whether Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC shipped a product embodying the claims or their primary line of business.

Current status: Based on Google Patents, the current assignee is Intellectual Ventures II LLC. The original assignee, Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC, appears to have transferred ownership.

Assignment timeline

  • 2018-08-10 (executed) / recorded 2018-08-10 — Reel 045330/0333

    • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
    • Assignor: IPWIRELESS, INC.
    • Assignee: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES HOLDING 81 LLC
    • Correspondent: Ropes & Gray LLP, 1900 University Avenue, East Palo Alto, CA 94303.
    • Context: Transfer from original developer (IPWireless) to Intellectual Ventures entity.

  • 2025-01-13 (executed) / recorded 2025-01-28 — Reel 063678/0781

    • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
    • Assignor: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES HOLDING 81 LLC
    • Assignee: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES II LLC
    • Correspondent: ROPES & GRAY LLP, 1211 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NY 10036. This correspondent firm recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Internal reorg/transfer within Intellectual Ventures entities.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10136416
    2007 : Priority date
    2017 : Application filed
    2018 : Assigned to Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC
         : Issued
    2025 : Assigned to Intellectual Ventures II LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The transfer from IPWireless, Inc. to Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC (Reel 045330/0333) and then to Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Reel 063678/0781) fits this pattern. Intellectual Ventures entities are well-known for patent licensing and assertion rather than product manufacturing.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — present. Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC and Intellectual Ventures II LLC are both well-known patent assertion entities (PAEs), often referred to as NPEs or "patent trolls". The PTAB case IPR2025-00218 listed on Google Patents for this patent further supports its involvement in assertion.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Ropes & Gray LLP appears as the correspondent for both assignments in the chain (Reel 045330/0333 and Reel 063678/0781).
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two recorded transfers, with a significant time gap between them.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While there are current litigation cases associated with this patent (e.g., in Texas Western District Court), the assignment dates (2018 and 2025) do not fall within 6 months prior to the first worldwide litigation filing date of 2024-03-08.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication of the original assignee (IPWireless, Inc.) undergoing bankruptcy proceedings as the reason for the transfer.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While Intellectual Ventures is known for acquiring patents, the specific context of this transfer as privateering on behalf of IPWireless, Inc. is not explicitly stated in the provided documents.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain terminates with Intellectual Ventures II LLC, which is a known NPE.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. The presence of Intellectual Ventures Holding 81 LLC and Intellectual Ventures II LLC as assignees (Reel 045330/0333, Reel 063678/0781) strongly indicates an NPE pattern, as Intellectual Ventures is a widely recognized patent assertion entity. The recurring correspondent, Ropes & Gray LLP, further supports this, suggesting a specialized legal firm handling patent transfers for assertion-focused entities.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 8:58:58 PM