Patent 10966025

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

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Ownership chain (2)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

2021-03-12 · recorded 2021-05-03 · reel 057398/0602 · Assignment of Assignors Interest
ERICSON, MICHAEL DARRELL ANDREW; LAMBOURNE, ROBERT A.; KALLAI, CHRISTOPHER; TRIPLETT, MARK; REIMANN, ROBERT Sonos, Inc.
Correspondent: JOHN C. BASS
Transfer of patent ownership from inventors to their employer, Sonos Inc., upon or shortly after patent grant.
2021-10-14 · recorded 2021-10-15 · reel 058862/0600 · Security Agreement
Sonos, Inc.JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
Correspondent: · ROPES & GRAY
Sonos Inc. granted a security interest in the patent to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as collateral.

Assignment history

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Inventors

Christopher Kallai: Likely employed by Sonos Inc. at the time of filing.
Michael Darrell Andrew Ericson: Likely employed by Sonos Inc. at the time of filing.
Robert A. Lambourne: Likely employed by Sonos Inc. at the time of filing.
Robert Reimann: Likely employed by Sonos Inc. at the time of filing.
Mark Triplett: Likely employed by Sonos Inc. at the time of filing.

All named inventors assigned their interest to Sonos Inc. (Reel 057398/0602), suggesting they were employees of Sonos Inc. around the patent's filing date. No unusual patterns, such as mass inventor departures, are apparent from the provided information.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Sonos Inc.

Sonos Inc. is an operating company that designs and manufactures wireless home sound systems. They ship products embodying the claims, such as their ZonePlayer and Sonos S5 devices, which are specifically mentioned in the patent as examples of playback devices (Description, "III. Example Playback Devices"). Their primary line of business is consumer electronics, focusing on multi-room audio technology. Sonos Inc. is currently an operating company.

Assignment timeline

2021-03-12 (executed) / recorded 2021-05-03 — Reel 057398/0602
- Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
- Assignor: ERICSON, MICHAEL DARRELL ANDREW; LAMBOURNE, ROBERT A.; KALLAI, CHRISTOPHER; TRIPLETT, MARK; REIMANN, ROBERT (Inventors)
- Assignee: SONOS, INC.
- Correspondent: BASS, JOHN C. C/O SONOS, INC. 614 CHAPALA STREET SANTA BARBARA, CA UNITED STATES 93101
- Context: Transfer of patent ownership from inventors to their employer, Sonos Inc., upon or shortly after patent grant.
2021-10-14 (executed) / recorded 2021-10-15 — Reel 058862/0600
- Conveyance: Security Agreement
- Assignor: SONOS, INC.
- Assignee: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
- Correspondent: ROPES & GRAY LLP PRUDENTIAL TOWER 800 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA UNITED STATES 02199
- Context: Sonos Inc. granted a security interest in the patent to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as collateral.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10966025
    2019 : Filed by Sonos Inc
    2021 : Issued
         : Assigned inventors to Sonos Inc
         : Security agreement to JPMorgan Chase Bank

NPE / troll-pattern signals

Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The assignees are Sonos Inc., an operating company, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., a financial institution. Neither demonstrates characteristics of a shell entity for licensing purposes.
Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Sonos Inc. is an operating company, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. is a banking institution. Neither is identified as a known patent asserter (NPE).
Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. The correspondent for the first assignment (Reel 057398/0602) was John C. Bass of Sonos Inc. The correspondent for the security agreement (Reel 058862/0600) was Ropes & Gray LLP. There is no recurrence of the same correspondent across these recorded events.
Cascading transfers — Not present. There are only two recorded events, one being a security agreement, and they are not consecutive transfers through chained LLCs within a short timeframe.
Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The most recent recorded event (a security agreement on 2021-10-15, Reel 058862/0600) predates the filing of IPR2026-00131 (2025-11-24) by more than 6 months. While an IPR is a challenge, not an infringement suit, no transfer activity is observed in proximity to this challenge.
Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Sonos Inc. is an active operating company, and there is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings.
Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE to assert on behalf of Sonos Inc.
Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator like RPX or AST.

Verdict

Insufficient data. The assignment records show the transfer from the inventors to the operating company Sonos Inc. (Reel 057398/0602) and a subsequent security agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (Reel 058862/0600). There are no recorded transfers to any known NPEs, shell entities, or defensive aggregators, nor any other strong or weak signals indicating NPE activity within the provided assignment chain. The patent currently remains associated with its original operating assignee.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search for patent number 10966025).

Generated 5/27/2026, 12:53:49 AM