Assignment history

Inventors

• Myung Cheul Jung (Pantech Corp)
• Kang Suk HUH (Pantech Corp)
• Jae Hyun Ahn (Pantech Corp)
• Ki Bum Kwon (Pantech Corp)

All inventors were employed by Pantech 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

Pantech Corp. Pantech was a South Korean mobile phone manufacturer. Pantech filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and was acquired by Solid & Optiflex in 2015. It is unclear if they shipped a product embodying the claims of US10863573.

Assignment timeline

• 2020-05-14 (executed) / recorded 2020-05-14 — Reel 049580/0179
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: PANTECH INC.
  • Assignee: PANTECH CORPORATION
  • Correspondent: BAE, KIM & LEE IP Group, 14F, S-TOWER, 116, Sinmunno 1-ga, Jongno-gu, SEOUL, KOREA
  • Context: internal reorg

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10863573
    2018 : Application filed by Pantech Corp
    2020 : Assigned Pantech Inc to Pantech Corp
    2020 : Granted

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfer is between "PANTECH INC." and "PANTECH CORPORATION", indicating an internal corporate restructuring or name change rather than a transfer to a shell entity.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Neither Pantech Inc. nor Pantech Corporation are identified as known NPEs in public databases.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. There is only one recorded assignment for this patent in the provided data.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is only one recorded assignment in the timeline.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. There is litigation associated with this patent (Unified Patents PTAB case IPR2025-00762 filed and a US case filed in Texas Eastern District Court), but the exact date of the first infringement suit is not specified, so it cannot be definitively determined if the assignment in 2020 was pre-litigation. The patent was granted on 2020-12-08, so a transfer in May 2020 could be considered relatively early in its life.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Unclear. Pantech Corp filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and was acquired in 2015. While the original assignee experienced bankruptcy, the assignment recorded in 2020 (after their acquisition) doesn't directly indicate a bankruptcy fire-sale of this specific patent.
7. Privateering — Not present. No evidence in the assignment record or other provided information suggests privateering.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. While the original assignee Pantech Corp underwent bankruptcy and acquisition, the sole recorded assignment in 2020 is an internal transfer between Pantech entities. There is insufficient information from the assignment record alone to definitively categorize it as an NPE assertion or operating company assertion. The existence of litigation suggests assertion, but the context of the transfer does not align with typical NPE patterns based on this limited assignment data.

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