Patent 10728436

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. 2021-10-08 · Security Interest

    BRAIN CORPORATIONHERCULES CAPITAL, INC.

    securitization

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

  • Filip Piekniewski (Brain Corp)
  • Vadim Polonichko (Brain Corp)
  • Eugene Izhikevich (Brain Corp)

All inventors appear to have been employed by Brain Corp at the time of filing. There is no immediate indication of all inventors departing the original assignee within 12 months of filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Brain Corp. Brain Corp is a company focused on developing AI and robotics for autonomous navigation. They have shipped products embodying the claims, specifically autonomous mobile robots for various industries (e.g., floor care). Brain Corp is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

To reconstruct the full assignment record for US patent 10728436, I will use the USPTO Assignment Center.

Search Query for USPTO Assignment Center: Patent Number: 10728436

(I will perform this search now, as direct access to the USPTO Assignment Center is not available in this environment. The information below is based on the Google Patents legal events and the prompt's instructions for what a USPTO record exposes).

Based on the Google Patents legal events, the following assignment is noted:

  • 2021-10-08 (executed) / recorded 2021-10-08 (assumed recording date based on event date) - Reel (Not provided in snippet)
    • Conveyance: Assignment (specifically, a "SECURITY INTEREST")
    • Assignor: BRAIN CORPORATION
    • Assignee: HERCULES CAPITAL, INC.
    • Correspondent: (Not provided in snippet)
    • Context: Securitization (SECURITY INTEREST implies a transfer for collateral/loan purposes rather than outright sale of IP). Hercules Capital, Inc. is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that provides senior secured venture growth loans to high-growth, innovative venture capital-backed companies in technology and life sciences industries. This assignment indicates Brain Corp used the patent as collateral for financing from Hercules Capital.

If the USPTO Assignment Center has no further records for this patent beyond what is already listed in the Google Patents legal events, this section will reflect that.

Assignment timeline

  • 2021-10-08 (executed) / recorded 2021-10-08 (Assumed) — Reel (Not provided)
    • Conveyance: Security Interest
    • Assignor: BRAIN CORPORATION
    • Assignee: HERCULES CAPITAL, INC.
    • Correspondent: (Not provided in snippet)
    • Context: Securitization of the patent as collateral for a loan.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10728436
    2014 : Priority date
    2017 : Application filed
    2020 : Patent Granted
    2021 : Security Interest to Hercules Capital

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfer is to Hercules Capital, Inc., a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that provides venture debt financing, not a licensing-only shell entity.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Hercules Capital, Inc. is a financial institution, not a known patent assertion entity (NPE) or "troll."
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Correspondent information is not provided in the snippet for the recorded security interest.
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one transfer (security interest) is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. While there is a PTAB case (IPR2025-01604) and "First worldwide family litigation filed," the specific filing dates for these are not within 6 months of the 2021-10-08 assignment date. The IPR was filed in 2025.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Brain Corp is an active, operating company and is not noted as being in bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — Not present. Hercules Capital, Inc. is a lender, not an operating company that would engage in privateering.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The current assignee, Hercules Capital, Inc., is a financial services company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. While the single recorded assignment is a security interest to a legitimate financial institution (Hercules Capital, Inc.), indicating a financing arrangement rather than an assertion play, the lack of full correspondent information prevents a complete assessment of repeat players. Furthermore, without more details on the "First worldwide family litigation" and the specifics of the IPR2025-01604 filing, it is difficult to definitively rule out pre-litigation transfer signals in relation to unknown litigation events.

For verification, please refer to the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/27/2026, 12:48:09 PM