Assignment history

Inventors

• Terry Wright (Dow AgroSciences LLC)
• Justin Lira (Dow AgroSciences LLC)
• Donald Merlo (Dow AgroSciences LLC)
• Nicole Arnold (Dow AgroSciences LLC)

Original assignee

Dow AgroSciences LLC was the original assignee. Dow AgroSciences LLC was a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, focused on agricultural chemicals and biotechnology, including developing herbicide-resistant crops. It is now part of Corteva Agriscience LLC, which is an operating company that ships products embodying claims related to herbicide-resistant seeds and agricultural solutions. Dow AgroSciences LLC is no longer an independent operating entity, having been merged into Corteva Agriscience LLC.

Assignment timeline

There are no recorded post-issuance assignments for US10947555 on the USPTO Assignment Center. The "Current Assignee" information on Google Patents (Corteva Agriscience LLC) appears to be a result of a name change or corporate restructuring rather than a separate recorded assignment specific to this patent. Google Patents itself notes the event as a "reassignment" with the context "CHANGE OF NAME" from Dow AgroSciences LLC to Corteva Agriscience LLC.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10947555
    2016 : Application filed by Dow AgroSciences LLC
    2021 : Issued to Dow AgroSciences LLC
    2021 : Assigned to Corteva Agriscience LLC via name change
    2026 : Patent expired

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfer from Dow AgroSciences LLC to Corteva Agriscience LLC is a result of a corporate name change/reorganization, not a transfer to a shell entity. Corteva Agriscience LLC is an operating company.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Neither Dow AgroSciences LLC nor Corteva Agriscience LLC are identified as known NPEs.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. There are no multiple recorded assignments to observe a pattern.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is no chain of multiple assignments.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The corporate name change to Corteva Agriscience LLC occurred on 2021-11-08, while the first district court litigation (1:22-cv-01046) was filed on 2022-08-09. This is outside the 6-month window to be considered "pre-litigation transfer" for enabling assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings for Dow AgroSciences LLC related to this patent transfer.
7. Privateering — Unclear. While Corteva Agriscience LLC is an operating company, the nature of its litigation activities (as evidenced by the District Court and IPR cases) would require further investigation to determine if it aligns with a privateering model where an operating company transfers patents to an NPE to assert on its behalf. However, the ownership remains with an operating entity.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently held by an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent remains with Corteva Agriscience LLC, an operating company formed from the merger of Dow AgroSciences LLC, which was the original assignee. While the patent has been involved in litigation, the ownership chain does not show transfers to known shell entities or other typical NPE signals. The change from Dow AgroSciences LLC to Corteva Agriscience LLC is a corporate restructuring, not a transfer for assertion purposes to a non-operating entity.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (Search for patent number 10947555).