Assignment history

Inventors

• Revanth Patil
• Paulo Shakarian
• Ashkan Aleali
• Ericsson Marin

All inventors were affiliated with Arizona State University at the time of the invention, which is consistent with the initial assignment to the Arizona Board of Regents. No unusual departure patterns have been identified.

Original assignee

The original assignee of record is the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University. ASU is a public research university. As an educational and research institution, it does not manufacture or ship commercial products in the conventional sense. The patent was later transferred to Skysong Innovations, LLC, which is the exclusive intellectual property management and technology transfer organization for Arizona State University.

Assignment timeline

• 2019-07-18 (executed) / recorded 2019-07-18 — Reel 048701/0001
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Revanth Patil, Paulo Shakarian, Ashkan Aleali, Ericsson Marin (Inventors)
  • Assignee: Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University
  • Correspondent: McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP, 300 S Wacker Dr, Ste 3100, Chicago, IL, 60606
  • Context: Standard initial assignment of invention from inventors to their employer.
• 2025-01-30 (executed) / recorded 2025-01-30 — Reel 069698/0641
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University
  • Assignee: Skysong Innovations, LLC
  • Correspondent: Rabideau Law, PLLC, 7151 E. Camelback Rd., Suite 444, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
  • Context: Internal transfer from the university system to its designated technology transfer and monetization entity, occurring less than two weeks before the first infringement litigation.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11275900
    2019 : Filed by ASU
         : Assigned to AZ Board of Regents
    2022 : Issued to AZ Board of Regents
    2025 : Assigned to Skysong Innovations
         : First infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present.
   The patent was transferred from the university (Arizona Board of Regents) to Skysong Innovations, LLC on 2025-01-30 (Reel 069698/0641). Skysong Innovations is ASU's technology transfer organization; while it has a physical address, its primary business is licensing and monetizing intellectual property developed at ASU, not producing products. This fits the pattern of transferring a patent from a research entity to a dedicated licensing/assertion entity.

2. Known asserter in the chain — present.
   Skysong Innovations, LLC, the current assignee, is a university-affiliated entity that engages in patent assertion. It filed multiple infringement suits involving this patent in February and March 2025, as documented by Unified Patents (e.g., Skysong Innovations, LLC v. [Defendant], 7:25-cv-00040, W.D. Tex.). University-backed licensing entities that do not produce products are widely considered a category of NPE.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present.
   The two assignments on record were handled by two different law firms. The initial assignment was recorded by McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP, and the second was recorded by Rabideau Law, PLLC. There is no recurrence of correspondents within this chain.

4. Cascading transfers — not present.
   There are only two recorded assignments: the initial one from the inventors and the second to the university's tech transfer office. There is no evidence of rapid, sequential transfers through multiple LLCs.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — present.
   This is a very strong signal. The assignment to Skysong Innovations, LLC was executed and recorded on 2025-01-30 (Reel 069698/0641). The first infringement lawsuit asserting this patent was filed just 12 days later on 2025-02-11 (Case 7:25-cv-00040, W.D. Tex.). The timing strongly indicates the transfer was made specifically to prepare for and enable litigation.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present.
   The original assignee, Arizona State University, is a major public university and is not in bankruptcy.

7. Privateering — not present.
   This is not a case of an operating company offloading patents to an NPE to assert against its competitors. It is a university monetizing its research portfolio.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present.
   The chain of title does not involve any known defensive aggregators. The current activity is offensive (assertion), not defensive.

Verdict

• NPE — high confidence

The analysis shows two strong signals of NPE activity. First, the patent was transferred to Skysong Innovations, LLC, a university-affiliated entity whose purpose is monetization and licensing, not product development (Reel 069698/0641). Second, and most critically, this transfer occurred on January 30, 2025, a mere 12 days before Skysong filed the first of multiple infringement lawsuits on February 11, 2025, indicating the transfer was made for the explicit purpose of litigation.

Verification Link: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US 11275900