Assignment history

Inventors

• Purang Abolmaesumi (University of British Columbia)
• Robert Rohling (University of British Columbia)
• Amir H. ABDI (University of British Columbia)
• Teresa S. M. Tsang (University of British Columbia)

All inventors were employed by the original assignee, the University of British Columbia, at the time of filing.

Original assignee

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. While they are not a product-shipping entity in the traditional commercial sense, they conduct extensive research and development. It is unclear if a product embodying the claims was directly shipped by the university, but their primary line of business is education and research, including medical technology development. The University of British Columbia is currently an operating institution.

Assignment timeline

To reconstruct the full assignment record for US patent 11129591, I would typically access the USPTO Assignment Center. However, as of the current date (May 15, 2026), the USPTO is streamlining its assignment search process, with a new Assignment Search application scheduled to be live on October 20, 2025. The currently available Google Patents information indicates one assignment:

• 2018-10-22 (execution date not explicitly provided, but typically close to recording date) / recorded 2018-10-22 - Reel (Not provided by Google Patents)
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS).
  • Assignor: ABDI, Amir H., ABOLMAESUMI, PURANG, ROHLING, ROBERT, TSANG, TERESA S.M.
  • Assignee: THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
  • Correspondent: (Not provided by Google Patents)
  • Context: Internal transfer – formal assignment of inventor interests to the original assignee.

Since the prompt explicitly states to use the USPTO Patent Assignment Search as the primary source, and notes that Google Patents is a cross-reference, a definitive, fully detailed assignment timeline with reel/frame numbers and correspondent information cannot be generated with high confidence until the updated USPTO Assignment Center is fully operational and accessible, or if a more detailed historical record from Google Patents becomes available. The provided Google Patents snippet only shows the initial assignment from the inventors to the University of British Columbia. Without access to the USPTO Assignment Center, further assignments cannot be confirmed or detailed.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11129591
    2017 : Filed by University of British Columbia
    2018 : Inventors assign to University of British Columbia
    2021 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to the University of British Columbia, which is an operating research institution.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. The University of British Columbia is not a known patent asserter.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. Correspondent information is not available in the provided Google Patents snippet. Without access to the USPTO Assignment Center, it's impossible to determine if a correspondent recurs.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded, from the inventors to the original assignee.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While the patent is involved in litigation (as noted in the summary), the available assignment record predates the filing of the application, and no subsequent transfers are provided in the current information to compare against litigation dates.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The University of British Columbia is an active institution and there is no indication of bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — not present. No evidence of privateering, as the patent is held by the original academic institution.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to the University of British Columbia.

Verdict

Insufficient data. Only one assignment is available, documenting the transfer from the individual inventors to the University of British Columbia (recorded 2018-10-22). This is a standard initial assignment and does not provide enough information to identify any NPE or troll patterns. Further investigation using the USPTO Assignment Center would be required to determine if subsequent assignments have occurred.