Assignment history

Inventors

• Borja Ibarz Gabardos (Brain Corp)
• Jean-Baptiste Passot (Brain Corp)

It is common for inventors to assign their rights to their employer as a condition of employment. Brain Corp is the original assignee, indicating the inventors were likely employed by Brain Corp at the time of filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Brain Corp. They ship products embodying the claims, primarily focusing on AI-powered autonomous navigation systems for commercial robots, particularly floor cleaning robots and inventory management robots. They develop the BrainOS® platform, which is an autonomy platform for robotic and AI applications, enabling partners to create and deploy autonomous mobile robots for tasks like floor care and inventory scanning in various commercial environments. Brain Corp is an active, privately held company.

Assignment timeline

• 2021-10-08 (executed) / recorded 2021-10-08 — Reel 056453/0628
  • Conveyance: Security Interest
  • Assignor: BRAIN CORPORATION
  • Assignee: HERCULES CAPITAL, INC.
  • Correspondent: Jeffrey B. Fromm, Kleinberg & Lerner, LLP, Los Angeles, CA.
  • Context: Securitization (grant of security interest in intellectual property).

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10379539
    2018 : Filed by Brain Corp
    2019 : Issued to Brain Corp
    2021 : Security Interest to Hercules Capital

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The only assignment recorded is a security interest to Hercules Capital, Inc., which is a publicly traded business development company specializing in venture lending, not a shell entity for licensing.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Neither Brain Corp nor Hercules Capital, Inc. are listed as known NPEs or high-frequency plaintiffs by public sources.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. Only one assignment is recorded, so there is no chain to observe recurrence. The correspondent, Jeffrey B. Fromm of Kleinberg & Lerner, LLP, is noted, but without further assignments, recurrence cannot be determined.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded, which is a security interest.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There are no indications of litigation against this patent. An IPR (IPR2025-01601) was filed, but it was not instituted due to procedural reasons. The security interest was recorded in October 2021, long before the IPR was filed.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Brain Corp is an active, privately held company, and there is no indication of bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence to suggest this pattern.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to Brain Corp, with a security interest held by Hercules Capital, Inc. Neither are defensive aggregators.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
The patent is owned by Brain Corp, an active operating company that develops and markets AI-powered autonomous navigation systems for robots, including floor cleaners. The sole recorded assignment is a security interest to Hercules Capital, Inc., which is a venture lending firm and not an NPE, indicating a financing arrangement rather than a transfer for assertion. There are no other signals of NPE activity.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US10379539: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html?qs=10379539