Assignment history

Inventors

The named inventor is Yechezkal Evan Spero. At the time of filing, the inventor appears to be operating as an individual, with no specific employer listed beyond "Individual" as the original assignee on Google Patents. The initial assignment record indicates "SPERO, YECHEZKAL EVAN (DBA SPECTRUM LIGHTING SOLUTIONS)" as the original assignee.

Original assignee

The original assignee on the issued patent is Yechezkal Evan Spero, doing business as Spectrum Lighting Solutions, as indicated by the first assignment record. There is no information readily available to suggest that "Spectrum Lighting Solutions" shipped a product embodying the claims of US10894503, which is typical for individual inventors or small DBA entities. Their primary line of business, based on the patent, would be related to detector-controlled headlight systems. The original assignee, Yechezkal Evan Spero, subsequently transferred ownership to various LLCs, indicating a change in status from direct ownership.

Assignment timeline

• 2005-09-02 (executed) / recorded 2021-02-17 — Reel 061206/0610

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: SPERO, YECHEZKAL EVAN
  • Assignee: SPERO, YECHEZKAL EVAN (DBA SPECTRUM LIGHTING SOLUTIONS)
  • Correspondent: ROBERT M. WASSERMAN, ESQ., WEITZMAN, OLDHAM & WASSERMAN, 237 S. 18TH STREET, PHILA, PA 19103
  • Context: Internal reorg/DBA designation from individual inventor.

• 2022-04-18 (executed) / recorded 2022-05-18 — Reel 061545/0961

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: SPERO, YECHEZKAL EVAN
  • Assignee: SHIELD IP LLC
  • Correspondent: JOSEPH E. MAENNER, ESQ., SAUL EWING ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP, 1500 MARKET STREET, SUITE 3800, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102-1000. This correspondent recurs multiple times in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter / shell entity.

• 2022-05-18 (executed) / recorded 2022-05-18 — Reel 061545/0964

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: SHIELD IP LLC
  • Assignee: CILIPUS IP LLC
  • Correspondent: JOSEPH E. MAENNER, ESQ., SAUL EWING ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP, 1500 MARKET STREET, SUITE 3800, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102-1000. This correspondent recurs multiple times in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter / shell entity.

• 2022-05-19 (executed) / recorded 2022-07-06 — Reel 061751/0816

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: CILIPUS IP LLC
  • Assignee: ROLAND IP LLC
  • Correspondent: JOSEPH E. MAENNER, ESQ., SAUL EWING ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP, 1500 MARKET STREET, SUITE 3800, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102-1000. This correspondent recurs multiple times in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter / shell entity.

• 2023-01-26 (executed) / recorded 2023-02-09 — Reel 063251/0556

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: ROLAND IP LLC
  • Assignee: ELIASON IP LLC
  • Correspondent: JOSEPH E. MAENNER, ESQ., SAUL EWING ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP, 1500 MARKET STREET, SUITE 3800, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102-1000. This correspondent recurs multiple times in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter / shell entity.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10894503
    2002 : Priority date
    2005 : Inventor DBA Spectrum Lighting
    2018 : Application filed
    2021 : Patent issued to inventor
    2022 : Assigned to Shield IP LLC
         : Assigned to Cilipus IP LLC
         : Assigned to Roland IP LLC
         : First infringement suit filed
    2023 : Assigned to Eliason IP LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The patent was transferred from an individual inventor to SHIELD IP LLC (Reel 061545/0961, executed 2022-04-18), and subsequently to CILIPUS IP LLC (Reel 061545/0964, executed 2022-05-18), ROLAND IP LLC (Reel 061751/0816, executed 2022-05-19), and ELIASON IP LLC (Reel 063251/0556, executed 2023-01-26). The "IP LLC" naming convention strongly suggests these are licensing-focused shell entities.
2. Known asserter in the chain — unclear. While the pattern of transfers and entity names is consistent with NPE behavior, none of the specific assignee entities (SHIELD IP LLC, CILIPUS IP LLC, ROLAND IP LLC, ELIASON IP LLC) are explicitly listed among the provided examples of known high-frequency asserters. Further external research into these specific LLCs would be required for a definitive "present" without further search.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Joseph E. Maenner, Esq., of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, acted as the correspondent for all transfers from the individual inventor to SHIELD IP LLC, and then through CILIPUS IP LLC, ROLAND IP LLC, and ELIASON IP LLC (Reel 061545/0961, 061545/0964, 061751/0816, 063251/0556). This consistent use of the same attorney/firm across multiple sequential transfers between "IP LLC" entities is a strong signal.
4. Cascading transfers — present. A rapid succession of transfers occurred in 2022: from SPERO, YECHEZKAL EVAN to SHIELD IP LLC (executed 2022-04-18), then from SHIELD IP LLC to CILIPUS IP LLC (executed 2022-05-18), and from CILIPUS IP LLC to ROLAND IP LLC (executed 2022-05-19). These three transfers between different LLCs happened within a span of just over a month, with the same correspondent, strongly indicating cascading transfers (Reel 061545/0961, 061545/0964, 061751/0816). Another transfer to ELIASON IP LLC occurred less than 8 months later (Reel 063251/0556).
5. Pre-litigation transfer — present. Google Patents indicates that district court litigation (e.g., cases 1:22-cv-00751, 1:22-cv-00752) was filed in Delaware District Court in "2022". The first transfer from the individual inventor to SHIELD IP LLC was executed on 2022-04-18 and recorded on 2022-05-18 (Reel 061545/0961). This assignment occurred within months of the apparent initial litigation filings, suggesting it was part of a strategy to enable patent assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication from the assignment records or publicly available information that the original assignor, Yechezkal Evan Spero, underwent bankruptcy proceedings.
7. Privateering — unclear. The available data does not provide specific evidence of an operating company transferring the patent to an NPE to assert on its behalf against competitors.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee, ELIASON IP LLC, is not a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The assignment chain for US10894503 strongly indicates NPE activity. This is supported by multiple shell-entity transfers, as evidenced by the transfers to entities with "IP LLC" in their names (Reel 061545/0961, 061545/0964, 061751/0816, 063251/0556). A clear pattern of cascading transfers between these entities in rapid succession is observed in 2022 (Reel 061545/0961, 061545/0964, 061751/0816), all handled by the same correspondent attorney, Joseph E. Maenner, Esq. (repeat correspondent). Crucially, the initial transfer to SHIELD IP LLC in April/May 2022 (Reel 061545/0961) appears to precede or coincide with the first infringement litigation identified in 2022, marking it as a pre-litigation transfer.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US10894503: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html?cn=10894503