Assignment history

Inventors

• Justin Cranshaw: Employed by Carnegie Mellon University at the time of filing.
• Raz Schwartz: Employed by Carnegie Mellon University at the time of filing.
• Jason I. Hong: Employed by Carnegie Mellon University at the time of filing.
• Norman Sadeh-Koniecpol: Employed by Carnegie Mellon University at the time of filing.

All inventors assigned their interest to Carnegie Mellon University on the filing date, indicating their employment relationship with the university at that time.

Original assignee

Carnegie Mellon University. Its primary line of business is education and academic research. It is currently an operating entity. Carnegie Mellon University does not typically ship products in the traditional commercial sense, but its research often forms the basis for licensed technologies or spin-off companies.

Assignment timeline

• 2020-07-13 (executed) / recorded 2020-10-13 — Reel 055848/0345

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: HONG, JASON I.; SADEH-KONIECPOL, NORMAN; CRANSHAW, JUSTIN; SCHWARTZ, RAZ
  • Assignee: CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
  • Correspondent: ROTHWELL, FIGG, ERNST & MANBECK, P.C., 806 15TH STREET, N.W., SUITE 800, WASHINGTON, DC 20005. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer of patent rights from the inventors to their employer, Carnegie Mellon University.

• 2025-06-18 (executed) / recorded 2025-06-23 — Reel 062085/0500

  • Conveyance: LICENSE (recorded as "LICENSE"; Google Patents specifies "CONFIRMATORY LICENSE")
  • Assignor: CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
  • Assignee: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
  • Correspondent: ROTHWELL, FIGG, ERNST & MANBECK, P.C., 806 15TH STREET, N.W., SUITE 800, WASHINGTON, DC 20005. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Licensing agreement between Carnegie Mellon University and the National Science Foundation, likely related to government funding as noted in the patent's "GOVERNMENT INTEREST" section.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11222349
    2020 : Inventors assign to CMU
    2022 : Issued to CMU
    2025 : CMU licenses to NSF

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: not present. Both Carnegie Mellon University and the National Science Foundation are established, operating institutions.
2. Known asserter in the chain: not present. Neither Carnegie Mellon University nor the National Science Foundation are identified as known patent asserters (NPEs).
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: present. ROTHWELL, FIGG, ERNST & MANBECK, P.C. is listed as the correspondent for the assignment recorded on 2020-10-13 (Reel 055848/0345) and the license recorded on 2025-06-23 (Reel 062085/0500).
4. Cascading transfers: not present. There are only two transfers in the chain, separated by five years, and they do not involve chained LLCs.
5. Pre-litigation transfer: unclear. No specific litigation concerning this patent has been identified in the provided information or through general searches for 2026 CAFC dockets, thus this signal cannot be assessed.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy for Carnegie Mellon University.
7. Privateering: not present. No evidence suggests a privateering arrangement.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data
The assignment chain for US11222349 shows typical transfers from inventors to a university, followed by a license to a government agency, consistent with the patent's government interest statement. While the same correspondent attorney appears for both recorded transactions, this alone is not sufficient to indicate an NPE pattern without other strong corroborating signals. There is no evidence of shell entities, known asserters, or other common NPE characteristics. [cite: Reel 055848/0345, Reel 062085/0500]
(For verification, see USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/)