Patent 10979693

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 (4)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2018-03-01 · reel 045143/0950 · Assignment

    JIN, HAN XIONG; ROWELL, ADAMLucid VR, Inc.

    Correspondent: Jeffrey B. S. Lum · The Law Office Of Jeffrey B. S. Lum

    Internal transfer from inventors to original assignee

  2. 2025-03-14 · reel 063683/0315 · Change of Name

    Lucid VR, Inc.BLUWHALE AI, INC.

    Correspondent: Michael J. Diener · Keybank National Association

    Name change of the original assignee

  3. 2025-07-16 · reel 063945/0961 · Assignment

    BLUWHALE AI, INC.R. HEWEN & CO., LLC

    Correspondent: Michael J. Diener · Keybank National Association

    Transfer of patent from former operating company (post-name change) to a patent licensing and enforcement agency

  4. 2025-07-16 · reel 063945/0962 · Assignment

    R. HEWEN & CO., LLCARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMAGING ASSOCIATION, INC.

    Correspondent: Michael J. Diener · Keybank National Association

    Transfer of patent from a patent licensing and enforcement agency to another entity focused on patent protection and enforcement

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.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Han Xiong JIN (Employer: Lucid VR Inc. at the time of filing)
  • Adam Rowell (Employer: Lucid VR Inc. at the time of filing)

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is Lucid Vr Inc. They developed and marketed virtual reality products, including high-quality video capture solutions, and had raised seed funding to enhance product development and expand market reach, with plans to launch new VR technologies and solutions by 2017. Their website was lucidcam.com. They also developed affordable VR haptic gloves with immersive finger tracking and force feedback. As of 2026, Lucid Reality Labs, a company with a similar name but separate identity, specializes in XR and AI development, providing immersive training, digital twins, and AI solutions, and has been recognized as one of The Americas' fastest-growing companies. Lucid VR Inc. itself appears to have been acquired or undergone a name change based on the assignment history.

Assignment timeline

  • 2018-03-01 (executed) / recorded 2018-03-01 — Reel 045143/0950
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: JIN, HAN XIONG; ROWELL, ADAM
    • Assignee: Lucid VR, Inc.
    • Correspondent: Jeffrey B. S. Lum, The Law Office Of Jeffrey B. S. Lum, 330 Townsend Street, Suite 217, San Francisco, CA 94107
    • Context: Internal transfer from inventors to original assignee
  • 2025-03-14 (executed) / recorded 2025-03-14 — Reel 063683/0315
    • Conveyance: Change of Name
    • Assignor: Lucid VR, Inc.
    • Assignee: BLUWHALE AI, INC.
    • Correspondent: Michael J. Diener, Keybank National Association, 100 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113-2559. This correspondent represents KeyBank, a commercial bank.
    • Context: Name change of the original assignee
  • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0961
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: BLUWHALE AI, INC.
    • Assignee: R. HEWEN & CO., LLC
    • Correspondent: Michael J. Diener, Keybank National Association, 100 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113-2559. This correspondent represents KeyBank.
    • Context: Transfer of patent from former operating company (post-name change) to a patent licensing and enforcement agency.
  • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0962
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: R. HEWEN & CO., LLC
    • Assignee: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMAGING ASSOCIATION, INC.
    • Correspondent: Michael J. Diener, Keybank National Association, 100 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113-2559. This correspondent represents KeyBank.
    • Context: Transfer of patent from a patent licensing and enforcement agency to another entity focused on patent protection and enforcement.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 10979693
    2018 : Filed by Lucid VR Inc
         : Assigned to Lucid VR Inc from inventors
    2025 : Lucid VR changed name to Bluwhale AI
         : Assigned to R Hewen & Co LLC
         : Assigned to AI Imaging Association

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — present.

    • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0961: The patent was transferred from BLUWHALE AI, INC. (an AI-powered financial intelligence platform) to R. HEWEN & CO., LLC, a boutique New York City patent licensing and enforcement agency.
    • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0962: The patent was then immediately transferred from R. HEWEN & CO., LLC to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMAGING ASSOCIATION, INC. (AIIA), which describes itself as a member-based organization "dedicated to delivering powerful patent protection services" and "ensuring our members operate confidently and competitively under the shield of foundational IP" and which combines "frontier technology insight with aggressive legal strategy." AIIA focuses on synthetic imaging and image stitching intellectual property. AIIA has also been involved in patent infringement litigation concerning image processing technologies.

  2. Known asserter in the chain — present.

    • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0962: The patent is currently assigned to Artificial Intelligence Imaging Association, Inc. (AIIA). AIIA has a public website stating its purpose is "delivering powerful patent protection services" and describing an "aggressive legal strategy" for IP enforcement. They have filed patent infringement lawsuits as a plaintiff.

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present.

    • Michael J. Diener, Keybank National Association, 100 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113-2559, appears as the correspondent for three consecutive assignments:
      • 2025-03-14 (executed) / recorded 2025-03-14 — Reel 063683/0315
      • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0961
      • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0962

  4. Cascading transfers — present.

    • 2025-07-16 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-16 — Reel 063945/0961 and 063945/0962: Two consecutive assignments occurred on the same date, 2025-07-16, within the same reel/frame range, moving the patent from BLUWHALE AI, INC. to R. HEWEN & CO., LLC, and then immediately to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMAGING ASSOCIATION, INC. All three of these assignments had the same correspondent, Michael J. Diener.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. There is no litigation specifically naming US10979693 found as of May 29, 2026.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present.

  7. Privateering — unclear. While the patent transferred from an operating company (Lucid VR / Bluwhale AI) to a patent assertion entity (AIIA), there's no explicit public record indicating a privateering arrangement where the operating company retains a stake in the assertion.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence
The strong signals for NPE activity include multiple cascading transfers in 2025, specifically the movement of the patent from an operating company (Bluwhale AI) to a known patent licensing and enforcement agency (R. Hewen & Co., LLC), and then immediately to an entity (Artificial Intelligence Imaging Association, Inc.) that actively engages in patent assertion litigation. The recurring correspondent, Michael J. Diener, across these transfers further supports this conclusion. The current assignee's publicly stated business model is focused on patent protection and enforcement.

USPTO Assignment Center Search for US10979693

Generated 5/29/2026, 9:07:10 PM