Assignment history

Inventors

The sole named inventor for US Patent 11208029 is Yechezkal Evan Spero. The patent lists "Individual" as the original assignee, implying that the inventor was self-employed or retained ownership at the time of filing. There are no immediate unusual patterns like a rapid departure from an original assignee, as the inventor appears to be the original assignee.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is "Individual." As an individual, it is unlikely they directly shipped a product embodying the claims in a commercial sense as an operating company. Their primary line of business would likely be patent licensing or assertion, given the litigation history. The current legal status of the patent, according to Google Patents, is "Expired - Fee Related," as of July 14, 2023. This status suggests that maintenance fees were not paid, leading to the patent's expiration.

Assignment timeline

A search on the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database for patent number US11208029 on 2026-07-08 revealed no recorded assignments for this patent. This indicates that, according to public USPTO records, the ownership has remained with the "Individual" inventor since its issuance, or any subsequent transfers have not been publicly recorded with the USPTO.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11208029
    2021 : Filed by Individual
    2021 : Issued to Individual
    2023 : Patent expired due to fee related issues
    2022 : Multiple IPRs filed by Unified Patents
    2022 : District Court litigation filed
    2025 : CAFC appeals filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Unclear. There are no recorded assignments to or from a shell entity. However, an "Individual" acting as a patent owner engaged in extensive litigation, without an apparent product line, can function similarly to a shell entity for assertion purposes.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present (in the chain of assignment records). There are no recorded transfers to entities commonly identified as NPEs. However, the Google Patents record indicates that multiple Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) (IPR2022-01500, IPR2023-01126, IPR2023-01034, IPR2023-01122, IPR2022-01586) were filed by "Unified Patents PTAB Data". Unified Patents is an organization known for challenging patents asserted by NPEs. The existence of these IPRs strongly implies that the patent is being asserted by its owner (the Individual) or an unrecorded assignee, often a characteristic of NPE activity.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. No assignment records exist.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. No assignment records exist.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. No assignment records exist, so no transfers could precede litigation. However, litigation in District Court (1:22-cv-00752, 1:22-cv-00751) and appeals at CAFC (25-1473, 25-1028) began in 2022 and 2025 respectively, while the patent was issued to the "Individual" in December 2021. This suggests assertion by the original "Individual" assignee.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. No assignment records exist, and no indication of the individual or original assignee filing for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — Unclear. Without assignment records or further public information about the "Individual" and their business activities, it's not possible to determine if this patent is being asserted on behalf of an operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is the subject of IPR challenges from Unified Patents, indicating it is being asserted rather than defensively aggregated.

Verdict

NPE — moderate confidence

The absence of recorded assignments on the USPTO Assignment Search prevents direct identification of a shell entity or known asserter in the ownership chain. However, the extensive litigation associated with this patent, including multiple Inter Partes Reviews filed by Unified Patents (an anti-NPE organization), strongly indicates that the "Individual" patent owner has been asserting this patent. Furthermore, the patent's "Expired - Fee Related" status from July 2023, less than two years after its issuance in December 2021, is highly unusual for a commercially vital patent and is often observed with patents used primarily for assertion purposes.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11208029/en
https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patents/11208029