Assignment history

Inventors

• AmirAli Talasaz. At the time of the original priority date (2012-09-04) and filing date (2019-09-18), AmirAli Talasaz was a co-founder of Guardant Health Inc.. He co-founded Guardant Health with Helmy Eltoukhy between 2012 and 2013, and had worked at Illumina until 2012. Talasaz has served on Guardant Health's board of directors since January 2013 and held various leadership positions including president and chief technology officer. As of 2022, he is a co-chief executive officer of Guardant Health, Inc..

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is Guardant Health Inc..

Guardant Health Inc. is an American biotechnology company based in Palo Alto, California, co-founded by Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz in 2012–2013. They are a public company, traded on Nasdaq as GH.

The company ships products embodying the claims, specifically liquid biopsy tests to detect cancer from mutations and other modifications in blood samples. Their primary products include Guardant360 LDT, Guardant360 CDx, Guardant360 TissueNext, Guardant360 Response, GuardantOMNI tests for advanced-stage cancer patients, and Guardant Reveal and Shield for early-stage cancer detection and recurrence monitoring. Guardant Health began selling Guardant360 tests to oncologists in 2014.

Guardant Health Inc. is currently an active, operating company.

Assignment timeline

There are no recorded post-issuance assignments for US patent 10793916 found in the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database. The patent was assigned to Guardant Health, Inc. on 2019-10-18 (after the application filing date but before issuance) as indicated on Google Patents. This initial assignment from the inventor to the company is typically recorded during prosecution. Since no further assignments are recorded, it indicates Guardant Health Inc. still owns the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10793916
    2012 : Priority Date
    2019 : Application filed
    2019 : Assigned to Guardant Health Inc
    2020 : Patent Issued
    2020 : First infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventor to Guardant Health Inc., which is an active, operating biotechnology company developing and selling cancer detection products. There is no indication of a transfer to a licensing-only shell entity.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Guardant Health Inc. is a known operating company and not identified as a known NPE or patent troll on public lists. Google Patents indicates Guardant Health has been involved in litigation as a plaintiff (e.g., against Foundation Medicine, and Natera), and as a defendant (e.g., against Illumina, and Tempus AI), suggesting active defense and assertion of its operating business's IP.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Insufficient data. As there is no publicly recorded assignment chain in the USPTO Assignment Center beyond the initial assignment to the original assignee, it is not possible to assess if a repeat correspondent is present. The Google Patents record shows an assignment to Guardant Health, Inc. on 2019-10-18, but it does not provide correspondent details.

4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There are no multiple consecutive assignments recorded.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The patent was assigned to Guardant Health Inc. on 2019-10-18. While the patent family has litigation history starting in 2019-2020 (e.g., Guardant Health sued Foundation Medicine in 2019-2020), Guardant Health Inc. is an operating company using these patents to protect its products and business, not a newly formed shell for litigation. The assignment predates the issuance of this specific patent (2020-10-06), but aligns with the company's established business and ongoing IP management.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Guardant Health Inc. is an active, publicly traded company. There are no indications of bankruptcy.

7. Privateering — Not present. Guardant Health Inc. is an operating company and the patent remains with them, suggesting direct assertion related to their core business rather than privateering.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is owned by Guardant Health Inc. and has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
Guardant Health Inc. is the original assignee and continues to own US patent 10793916, as evidenced by the lack of further recorded assignments in the USPTO Assignment Center and its active status as a biotechnology company. The company actively develops and sells liquid biopsy cancer detection products, and the patent's subject matter (systems and methods to detect rare mutations and copy number variation) directly relates to its core business. The litigation associated with this patent family (e.g., Guardant Health suing Foundation Medicine and Natera) appears to be part of an operating company defending its market and intellectual property.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US10793916