Assignment history

Inventors

• Stephen G. Dick
• Stephen E. Terry
• Guodong Zhang
• James M. Miller
• Sung-Hyuk Shin

This patent is a continuation of a long chain of applications originating from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/497,747, filed on August 25, 2003. The original patents in this family were assigned to InterDigital Technology Corporation, a mobile technology research and development company. The inventors were likely employees or contractors for InterDigital at the time of the invention.

Original assignee

The original assignee listed on the face of US patent 10,764,803 is Signal Trust for Wireless Innovation. This entity appears to be a patent trust or holding company rather than an operating company that ships products embodying the claims. The underlying technology was developed at InterDigital, which primarily generates revenue through patent licensing. Signal Trust for Wireless Innovation seems to be a special-purpose vehicle for holding these specific assets.

Assignment timeline

• 2021-01-29 (executed) / recorded 2021-02-01 — Reel 054813/0001

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: Signal Trust for Wireless Innovation
  • Assignee: RNB Wireless LLC
  • Correspondent: Jonathan L. Schuchardt, Dilworth IP, LLC, Trumbull, CT. This correspondent recurs in the chain.
  • Context: Transfer from the original holding company to an intermediate LLC as part of a transfer-to-asserter chain.

• 2021-06-08 (executed) / recorded 2021-06-09 — Reel 056801/0177

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: RNB Wireless LLC
  • Assignee: Pantech Wireless, LLC
  • Correspondent: Jonathan L. Schuchardt, Dilworth IP, LLC, Trumbull, CT. This is the same correspondent as the previous transfer.
  • Context: Transfer to the current owner and asserting entity.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10,764,803
    2003 : Priority date based on provisional app
    2019 : Application filed by Signal Trust
    2020 : Patent issued
    2021 : Assigned to RNB Wireless LLC
         : Assigned to Pantech Wireless LLC
    2024 : Infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The patent was transferred from "Signal Trust for Wireless Innovation" to "RNB Wireless LLC" and then to "Pantech Wireless, LLC" (Reels 054813/0001 and 056801/0177). None of these appear to be operating companies with products in commerce.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. The current assignee, Pantech Wireless, LLC, is a known patent asserter. It is listed as an NPE by Unified Patents and is the plaintiff in litigation involving this patent (case 5:24-cv-00038, E.D. Texas).

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Present. Attorney Jonathan L. Schuchardt of Dilworth IP, LLC handled the recording for both the transfer to RNB Wireless LLC (Reel 054813/0001) and the subsequent transfer to Pantech Wireless, LLC (Reel 056801/0177). A recurring correspondent across transfers of shell-like entities is a strong indicator of a coordinated licensing or assertion campaign.

4. Cascading transfers — Present. The two assignments occurred in rapid succession, with the patent moving from Signal Trust to RNB Wireless in January 2021 and then from RNB Wireless to Pantech Wireless in June 2021 (a span of less than five months).

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The chain of assignments in 2021 was followed by litigation filed in 2024, indicating the transfers were executed to place the patent with an entity created for assertion.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no evidence that any transfer was the result of bankruptcy proceedings.

7. Privateering — Unclear. While the patent originated with an operating/licensing company (InterDigital) and was transferred to an NPE, InterDigital's primary business is licensing. This makes it difficult to classify as classic privateering, where an operating company secretly uses an NPE to sue its competitors.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive entity.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The ownership chain for US patent 10,764,803 displays multiple strong signals of non-practicing entity (NPE) activity. The patent was moved through a cascade of two shell-like entities in under five months (Reels 054813/0001 and 056801/0177), with both transfers handled by the same correspondent attorney. The final assignee, Pantech Wireless, LLC, is a publicly identified NPE that has asserted this patent in federal court.

Verification link: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for Pat. No. 10764803