Assignment history

Inventors

• Kevin W. Dinn: At the time of filing, Dinn was the founder of Kannuu Pty Ltd. There are no unusual patterns, as this represents a founder assigning his invention to his own company.

Original assignee

The original assignee listed on the patent is Kannuu Pty Ltd, an Australian proprietary company. Kannuu developed and marketed a predictive search and text-input technology primarily for smart TVs, set-top boxes, and other media devices with limited input controls (like remote controls). The company appears to have shipped products or licensed its technology. However, its current primary business appears to be patent assertion.

The patent's legal status is listed as "Expired - Fee Related" as of today's date (2026-05-13), indicating a failure to pay required USPTO maintenance fees. This would impact any ongoing litigation.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database reveals only one recorded assignment for this patent.

• 2020-10-22 (executed) / recorded 2020-10-26 — Reel 057036/0474
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Dinn, Kevin William
  • Assignee: Kannuu Pty Ltd
  • Correspondent: Jeffrey M. Dracup, Klarquist Sparkman, LLP, 121 S.W. Salmon Street, Suite 1600, Portland, OR, 97204
  • Context: This is the initial, standard assignment of the invention from the sole inventor to the company he founded.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11200252
    2007 : Priority date
    2020 : Application filed
         : Assigned to Kannuu Pty Ltd
    2021 : Patent issued
    2026 : IPR filed by Unified Patents
         : Patent expires for non-payment of fees

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The patent has remained with the original assignee, Kannuu Pty Ltd, since it was assigned by the inventor. There is no record of a transfer to a non-practicing LLC.

2. Known asserter in the chain: Present. While it began as an operating company, Kannuu Pty Ltd has engaged in a widespread patent assertion campaign against numerous companies in the smart TV and automotive industries. Furthermore, an inter partes review (IPR) petition, IPR2026-00072, was filed against this patent by Unified Patents, an organization whose primary mission is to challenge patents asserted by NPEs. This confirms Kannuu is viewed as a significant asserter.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. Only one assignment has been recorded, so no pattern can be established.

4. Cascading transfers: Not present.

5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The only assignment on record occurred years before any known litigation campaigns involving this patent family.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present.

7. Privateering: Unclear. Kannuu Pty Ltd is asserting the patent in its own name. This is not privateering in the typical sense of an operating company transferring patents to a third-party NPE for assertion. It is, however, a case of an operating company shifting its business model to focus on patent monetization.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent has not been acquired by a defensive aggregator. To the contrary, a defensive organization (Unified Patents) has actively challenged the patent's validity at the PTAB.

Verdict

• NPE — high confidence

Justification: While the patent was never transferred to a shell entity, the assignee, Kannuu Pty Ltd, exhibits the primary behavior of an NPE. It has launched a broad litigation campaign against dozens of companies, many outside the specific market it originally served. The strongest signal is the IPR (IPR2026-00072) filed by Unified Patents, which exists specifically to deter litigation from NPEs and confirms that Kannuu's assertion activities are significant enough to warrant a validity challenge from an anti-NPE organization.

Verification link: USPTO Assignment Search for US 11200252