Assignment history

Inventors

• James Hicks (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
• Nicholas Navin (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
• Jennifer Troge (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
• Zihua Wang (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
• Michael Wigler (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

All named inventors were associated with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at the time of the patent application filing, as indicated by the assignment of their interest to the institution. No unusual patterns, such as mass departure of inventors, are observed.

Original assignee

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a private, non-profit research and educational institution primarily engaged in basic and applied biological research, including genomics. As a research institution, it does not typically "ship products" in the commercial sense but generates intellectual property through its scientific discoveries. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

• 2019-11-13 (executed) / recorded 2019-11-18 — Reel 051390/0072

  • Conveyance: Confirmatory License
  • Assignor: COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
  • Assignee: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY
  • Correspondent: R. ALAN SHOTWELL, ESQ., 1250 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, NW, SUITE 700, WASHINGTON, DC 20036
  • Context: Confirmatory license granted to the US Government, acknowledging rights due to government funding of the underlying research.

• 2020-12-28 (executed) / recorded 2021-01-05 — Reel 054665/0090

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: HICKS, JAMES; TROGE, JENNIFER; WANG, ZIHUA; WIGLER, MICHAEL; NAVIN, NICHOLAS (collectively, the Inventors)
  • Assignee: COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
  • Correspondent: BETH D. GOLDMAN, ESQ. - PERKINS COIE LLP, 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900, Seattle, WA 98101
  • Context: Initial assignment of patent rights from the inventors to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, recorded near the patent's issue date.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US10947589
    2010 : Priority date
    2016 : Filed by Cold Spring Harbor Lab
    2019 : Confirmatory license to US Army
    2021 : Issued to Cold Spring Harbor Lab
         : Inventors assigned to CSHL

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The patent is owned by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research institution, and there is a license to the US Government. Neither entity exhibits characteristics of a shell entity.
2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the US Government are not identified as known patent asserters or NPEs.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. The two recorded events have different correspondents (R. Alan Shotwell and Beth D. Goldman).
4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There are only two recorded events, one a license and the other an inventor assignment, not a series of ownership transfers through multiple entities.
5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. While Google Patents indicates ongoing litigation (e.g., PTAB case IPR2025-01355 filed in 2025, US case 1:25-cv-00263 in Delaware District Court in 2025), there are no recorded assignments of ownership from 2021 onwards that would precede this litigation, indicating no transfer to a new entity specifically for assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory remains an active and operating institution.
7. Privateering: Not present. There is no evidence suggesting Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has transferred the patent to an NPE to assert on its behalf.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent is held by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent is owned by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research institution that is actively operating and generating intellectual property. The recorded assignment chain shows the inventors' rights being assigned to CSHL (Reel 054665/0090, recorded 2021-01-05) and a confirmatory license to the US Government related to funding (Reel 051390/0072, recorded 2019-11-18). There are no indications of transfers to shell entities or known NPEs. Any litigation appears to be pursued by the original assignee.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US10947589: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/10947589