Assignment history — US Patent 11037094B2

Inventors

Peter A. Mehring: Employed by Intelleflex Corporation (which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs Inc.) at the time of filing.
Thomas C. Reese: Employed by Intelleflex Corporation (which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs Inc.) at the time of filing.
Dean M. Kawaguchi: Employed by Intelleflex Corporation (which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs Inc.) at the time of filing.
Sameer Dekate: Employed by Intelleflex Corporation (which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs Inc.) at the time of filing.
Russell Shikami: Employed by Intelleflex Corporation (which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs Inc.) at the time of filing.

The assignment from the inventors to Intelleflex Corporation was executed on March 22, 2019, one day after the patent's filing date, strongly indicating their employment with the company at the time.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is Zest Labs Inc. The initial assignment from the inventors was to Intelleflex Corporation, which subsequently changed its name to Zest Labs, Inc. on the same day the assignment was recorded.
Zest Labs Inc. (and its predecessor Intelleflex Corporation) was an operating company that developed and marketed technology solutions for managing the quality and freshness of perishable food products, particularly during transport and storage, utilizing IoT sensors and AI (e.g., the "Zest Fresh" platform). They shipped products embodying these claims in the form of their freshness management systems and related hardware/software.
Zest Labs Inc. was acquired by Post Harvest Technologies, LLC in July 2021. It likely now operates as a subsidiary or its assets have been integrated into the acquiring entity.

Assignment timeline

2019-03-22 (executed) / recorded 2019-04-01 — Reel 049580/0474
- Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
- Assignor: KAWAGUCHI, DEAN M.; REESE, THOMAS C.; SHIKAMI, RUSSELL; DEKATE, SAMEER; MEHRING, PETER A. (all inventors)
- Assignee: INTELLEFLEX CORPORATION
- Correspondent: BEYER LAW GROUP LLP; 2055 GATEWAY PLACE, SUITE 420, SAN JOSE, CA 95110.
- Context: Transfer of patent rights from the individual inventors to their corporate employer.
2019-04-01 (executed) / recorded 2019-04-01 — Reel 049580/0478
- Conveyance: CHANGE OF NAME
- Assignor: INTELLEFLEX CORPORATION
- Assignee: ZEST LABS, INC.
- Correspondent: BEYER LAW GROUP LLP; 2055 GATEWAY PLACE, SUITE 420, SAN JOSE, CA 95110. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
- Context: Internal corporate restructuring and name change of the original corporate assignee.

No further assignments specifically listing US patent 11037094B2 have been recorded in the USPTO Assignment Center subsequent to the name change to Zest Labs, Inc.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11037094B2
    2019 : Inventors assign to Intelleflex Corp
         : Intelleflex Corp changes name to Zest Labs Inc
    2021 : Issued to Zest Labs Inc

NPE / troll-pattern signals

Shell-entity transfer: not present. Intelleflex Corporation and Zest Labs Inc. were operating companies producing technologies aligned with the patent's subject matter.
Known asserter in the chain: not present. Neither Intelleflex Corporation nor Zest Labs Inc. are identified as known patent assertion entities.
Repeat correspondent across the chain: present. BEYER LAW GROUP LLP (2055 GATEWAY PLACE, SUITE 420, SAN JOSE, CA 95110) served as the correspondent for both recorded assignments for this patent (Reel 049580/0474 and 049580/0478).
Cascading transfers: not present. The two recorded transfers occurred within a single day and represent an initial assignment from inventors and a corporate name change, which is not indicative of cascading transfers through unrelated shell entities.
Pre-litigation transfer: not present. No public record of litigation involving this patent was found.
Bankruptcy fire-sale: not present. Zest Labs Inc. was acquired by another operating company, Post Harvest Technologies, LLC, rather than going through bankruptcy proceedings.
Privateering: not present. There is no evidence suggesting a privateering arrangement.
Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): not present. The recorded ownership chain does not terminate with a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. Based solely on the recorded assignment records for US11037094B2, there are only two entries: an initial assignment from inventors to Intelleflex Corporation, followed immediately by a corporate name change to Zest Labs Inc. (Reel 049580/0474 and 049580/0478). While Zest Labs Inc. was publicly acquired in 2021, this specific patent number does not appear on any subsequent recorded assignment, meaning the USPTO records for this patent do not reflect a transfer to Post Harvest Technologies, LLC. Without such a recorded transfer for this specific patent, it is not possible to determine its current status beyond Zest Labs Inc. being the assignee of record.

USPTO Assignment Center search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/