Patent 10516270

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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Ownership chain (1)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. ? · recorded 2017-06-20 · reel 042756/0905 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    ZIMMANCK, DONALD RICHARD; FORNAGE, MARTIN; HARRISON, MICHAEL J.; AND OTHERSENPHASE ENERGY, INC.

    Correspondent: BRENT ANDERSON · CPA GLOBAL

    Original assignment from inventors

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

  • Donald Richard Zimmanck (Enphase Energy Inc.)
  • Martin Fornage (Enphase Energy Inc.)
  • Michael J. Harrison (Enphase Energy Inc.)
  • Christopher Rowe (Enphase Energy Inc.)

All inventors were employed by Enphase Energy Inc. at the time of filing.

Original assignee

Enphase Energy Inc. is the entity named on the issued patent. Enphase Energy Inc. is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: ENPH) that designs and manufactures solar microinverters, battery energy storage, and EV charging solutions, which embody the claims of the patent related to microgrid control and energy management. The company is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

  • 2017-01-03 to 2017-01-20 (executed) / recorded 2017-06-20 — Reel 042756/0905
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: ZIMMANCK, DONALD RICHARD; FORNAGE, MARTIN; HARRISON, MICHAEL J.; AND OTHERS
    • Assignee: ENPHASE ENERGY, INC.
    • Correspondent: BRENT ANDERSON, C/O CPA GLOBAL, 900 SECOND AVENUE SOUTH, SUITE 1500, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55402
    • Context: Original assignment from inventors to the filing entity.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10516270
    2017 : Assigned to Enphase Energy Inc.

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The sole assignee, Enphase Energy Inc., is a well-known operating company that manufactures and sells products related to the patent's claims.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Enphase Energy Inc. is not identified as a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. Only one assignment is recorded, so there is no pattern of recurrence within this chain. The correspondent, BRENT ANDERSON, C/O CPA GLOBAL, is a common entity for recording assignments for various companies, not specifically indicative of an NPE without further context across multiple patent chains.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There is no indication of an infringement suit filed within 6 months of the recorded assignment.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Enphase Energy Inc. is an active, publicly traded company and there is no evidence of bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence suggesting Enphase Energy Inc. transferred the patent to an NPE for assertion on its behalf.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. Only one assignment from the inventors to the original assignee, Enphase Energy Inc., is recorded. There are no subsequent transfers or other events in the assignment record that would indicate an NPE pattern. The patent appears to be held by the original operating company.

USPTO Assignment Center search page: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/24/2026, 6:45:31 PM