Assignment history

Inventors

• David Wyatt (Employer at time of filing not determinable from patent text)

Original assignee

The original assignee, Virtual Electric Inc., appears to be an operating company. While its primary line of business isn't explicitly detailed in the patent, the description of the "multi-function smart tokenizing electronic payment device" suggests a focus on developing innovative payment technologies. Its current status (operating, acquired, dissolved, in bankruptcy) is not definitively determinable from the provided patent text.

Assignment timeline

• 2022-02-04 (executed) / recorded 2022-02-04 — Reel 059637/0458
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Virtual Electric Inc.
  • Assignee: CARDWARE, INC.
  • Correspondent: Matthew J. Van Eman, The Van Eman Law Firm PLLC, 2404 Fairway Dr., Suite 200, Plano, TX, 75093. This correspondent has not recurred in this chain or elsewhere on this site's tracked patents based on the provided information.
  • Context: Transfer of assignor's interest from the original assignee to CardWare Inc.
• 2022-12-08 (executed) / recorded 2022-12-08 — Reel 060416/0400
  • Conveyance: Merger
  • Assignor: CARDWARE, INC.
  • Assignee: CARDWARE, INC.
  • Correspondent: Matthew J. Van Eman, The Van Eman Law Firm PLLC, 2404 Fairway Dr., Suite 200, Plano, TX, 75093. This correspondent has not recurred in this chain or elsewhere on this site's tracked patents based on the provided information.
  • Context: Merger where CardWare Inc. remains the assignee.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11176538
    2020 : Filed by Virtual Electric Inc
    2021 : Issued
    2022 : Assigned to CARDWARE INC
         : Merger into CARDWARE INC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — unclear. The transfer from Virtual Electric Inc. to CardWare Inc. is an assignment of assignor's interest. While CardWare Inc. is listed as the current assignee, without further information about its operations or products, it's unclear if it's a licensing-only shell entity.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Neither Virtual Electric Inc. nor CardWare Inc. are identified as known NPEs in the provided public NPE lists or litigation data.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Matthew J. Van Eman of The Van Eman Law Firm PLLC handled both recorded assignments, but there is no information to indicate if this correspondent has appeared on NPE assertion lists or recurred in other tracked patent chains.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are two recorded assignments within 10 months (February to December 2022). However, the second event is a merger of CardWare Inc. into itself, not a transfer to a new entity.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The patent has litigation history, with cases filed in Texas Western and Eastern District Courts in 2022 and 2024, and PTAB cases filed in 2023 and 2025. The first recorded assignment to CardWare Inc. occurred on 2022-02-04. Given that the first district court case was filed in Texas Eastern District Court on 2022-03-08, this assignment occurred within one month of the first litigation. This could indicate a pre-litigation transfer; however, without more context on the nature of the litigation and the relationship between the assignor and assignee, it remains unclear if it directly enabled assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No indication of bankruptcy proceedings for Virtual Electric Inc. or CardWare Inc. was found.
7. Privateering — unclear. There is no information to suggest that Virtual Electric Inc. transferred the patent to CardWare Inc. to assert on its behalf against competitors.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee, CardWare Inc., is not identified as a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — moderate confidence. While there's no definitive proof of a shell entity or a known asserter, the assignment from Virtual Electric Inc. to CardWare Inc. in February 2022, immediately followed by litigation in March 2022, suggests a possible pre-litigation transfer to facilitate assertion. The nature of the second recorded event as a merger of CardWare Inc. into itself doesn't definitively clarify the operating status of the entity, leaving some ambiguity.

Verification link: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html (search for patent number 11176538)