Patent 10552490

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.

Active provider: Google · gemini-2.5-flash

Ownership chain (5)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2023-04-25 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    GROSS, WILLIAMIDEALAB

    Inventor assignment to a holding company.

  2. 2023-04-25 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    COLWELL, STEVEX1 Technologies, Inc.

    Inventor assignment to an operating company.

  3. 2023-04-25 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.X1 Discovery, Inc.

    Transfer from original assignee to an operating company.

  4. 2023-04-25 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    IDEALABX1 Technologies, Inc.

    Transfer from a holding company to an operating company.

  5. 2023-04-25 · CHANGE OF NAME

    X1 Technologies, Inc.FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.

    Corporate name change.

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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Inventors

  • William Gross: Employer at time of filing not determinable from the provided text.
  • Steven Lee Colwell: Employer at time of filing not determinable from the provided text.

No unusual patterns, such as inventors departing the original assignee within 12 months of filing, can be determined from the provided information.

Original assignee

The original assignee on the issued patent is FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS Inc. The provided patent text does not state whether they shipped a product embodying the claims or their primary line of business. Their current status is "Original Assignee" according to Google Patents, but their current operating status (e.g., operating, acquired, dissolved, in bankruptcy) is not explicitly stated. Google Patents indicates that on 2023-04-25, the patent was "Assigned to X1 Discovery, Inc. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC." This suggests that Future Search Holdings, Inc. is likely no longer the owner.

Assignment timeline

The USPTO Assignment Center (https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/) was searched for US patent 10552490. No assignment records were found for this patent. This indicates that, according to the USPTO's public assignment database, the patent has not been formally assigned since its issuance, or at least no such assignments have been recorded with the USPTO.

However, the Google Patents page for US10552490 indicates several reassignments on 2023-04-25. These include:

  • Assigned to X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. from IDEALAB (ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST).
  • Assigned to X1 Discovery, Inc. from FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC. (ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST).
  • Assigned to IDEALAB from GROSS, WILLIAM (ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST).
  • Assigned to X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. from COLWELL, STEVE (ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST).
  • Assigned to FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC. from X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (CHANGE OF NAME).

The absence of these records in the USPTO Assignment Center search may be due to a delay in public recordation or specific internal legal arrangements not requiring public recordation at the time of the search. Given the direct mention on Google Patents, these events are acknowledged as part of the ownership chain.

Therefore, based on the Google Patents data, the assignment timeline is:

  • 2023-04-25 (executed) / recorded 2023-04-25 (Date inferred from Google Patents entry)

    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: GROSS, WILLIAM
    • Assignee: IDEALAB
    • Correspondent: Not specified in Google Patents.
    • Context: Inventor assignment to a holding company.

  • 2023-04-25 (executed) / recorded 2023-04-25 (Date inferred from Google Patents entry)

    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: COLWELL, STEVE
    • Assignee: X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    • Correspondent: Not specified in Google Patents.
    • Context: Inventor assignment to an operating company.

  • 2023-04-25 (executed) / recorded 2023-04-25 (Date inferred from Google Patents entry)

    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.
    • Assignee: X1 Discovery, Inc.
    • Correspondent: Not specified in Google Patents.
    • Context: Transfer from original assignee to an operating company.

  • 2023-04-25 (executed) / recorded 2023-04-25 (Date inferred from Google Patents entry)

    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: IDEALAB
    • Assignee: X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    • Correspondent: Not specified in Google Patents.
    • Context: Transfer from a holding company to an operating company.

  • 2023-04-25 (executed) / recorded 2023-04-25 (Date inferred from Google Patents entry)

    • Conveyance: CHANGE OF NAME
    • Assignor: X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    • Assignee: FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.
    • Correspondent: Not specified in Google Patents.
    • Context: Corporate name change. This entry is somewhat ambiguous as X1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. is listed as the assignor and FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC. as the assignee for a change of name, which may indicate a reverse merger or simply a complex re-organization where the entity now known as Future Search Holdings, Inc. was previously X1 Technologies, Inc. (or vice versa in a different context). Given other entries showing Future Search Holdings, Inc. assigning to X1 Discovery, Inc. this entry likely reflects a change in the legal entity's name or structure rather than a straightforward assignment of patent rights in the same way as the other entries.

Note: The USPTO Assignment Center is considered the authoritative source for recorded assignments. The Google Patents "Legal status" section provides a summary of events which may be compiled from various sources, and the precise legal nature and order of these events might only be fully clear from the underlying recorded documents themselves (which are not available in the given context). The absence of these events in a direct USPTO Assignment Center search is noteworthy.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10552490
    2020 : Patent issued
    2023 : Inventor Gross assigned to Idealab
    2023 : Inventor Colwell assigned to X1 Technologies
    2023 : Future Search Holdings to X1 Discovery
    2023 : Idealab assigned to X1 Technologies
    2023 : X1 Technologies name change to Future Search

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Unclear. While FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS Inc. does not appear to have significant product offerings under that name (a separate "FutureSearch, Inc." exists, but it was founded in 2023 and deals in predictive forecasting services, which does not appear to embody the claims of US10552490), the patent was subsequently assigned to X1 Discovery, Inc. which is an operating company. The provided information does not offer enough details on FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS Inc.'s original operations to definitively label it as a shell entity that transferred the patent to another shell entity. The transfers on 2023-04-25 show movement towards X1 Discovery, Inc., an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. X1 Discovery, Inc. is an operating company that develops and markets data discovery and eDiscovery software solutions. There is no indication from the provided information that any of the named entities (FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS Inc., Idealab, X1 Technologies, Inc., X1 Discovery, Inc.) are on public NPE lists.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. The correspondent information for the 2023-04-25 assignments is "Not specified in Google Patents." Without this information from the USPTO Assignment Center, it is impossible to determine if a repeat correspondent is present.
  4. Cascading transfers — Present. Multiple assignments occurred on the same date (2023-04-25), involving several entities (Inventors Gross and Colwell, Idealab, X1 Technologies, Inc., FUTURE SEARCH HOLDINGS, INC., X1 Discovery, Inc.). This constitutes multiple consecutive transfers in a short period.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The assignments occurred on 2023-04-25, and the first infringement suit (8:23-cv-02415 in California Central District Court) was filed on December 19, 2023. This falls within the 6-month window prior to litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. No information suggesting bankruptcy of the original assignee or any other entity in the chain was provided.
  7. Privateering — Unclear. There is no information in the provided text to suggest that an operating company transferred the patent to an NPE that asserts on its behalf.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain ends at X1 Discovery, Inc., which is an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The chain of assignments, particularly the transfers on 2023-04-25 leading to X1 Discovery, Inc., indicates that the patent is now held by an operating company. X1 Discovery, Inc. is a software company that develops eDiscovery and enterprise search solutions, which appear to embody the claims of US10552490. The district court litigation was filed by X1 Discovery, Inc. against Microsoft Corporation (8:23-cv-02415), suggesting assertion by an operating company against a competitor. The presence of pre-litigation transfers, while sometimes a signal of NPE activity, in this context appears to be part of the operational company solidifying its ownership for assertion.

For verification, see the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (Search for patent number 10552490).

Generated 6/19/2026, 12:46:02 AM