Patent 11277650

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

Active provider: Google · gemini-2.5-flash

Ownership chain (2)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. 2021-11-29 · reel 059941/0815 · Merger

    MAXELL, LTD.MAXELL, LTD.

    Correspondent: · MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY

    internal reorg

  2. 2021-12-03 · reel 059942/0698 · Change of Name

    MAXELL, LTD.MAXELL, LTD.

    Correspondent: · MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY

    change of name

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Hideki Kamimaki (Maxell Ltd)
  • Akira Date (Maxell Ltd)
  • Akira Tanaka (Maxell Ltd)

Original assignee

The original assignee on the issued patent US11277650B2 is Maxell Ltd. Maxell Ltd. is a Japanese company that manufactures consumer electronics and industrial materials. Their main products include batteries, wireless charging products, storage devices, LCD/laser projectors, optical lenses, and functional materials. In the past, they also manufactured recording media such as audio cassettes, VHS tapes, floppy disks, and recordable optical discs.

Maxell Ltd. is currently an operating company. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market. The company has undergone several name changes and reorganizations, including operating as Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. and Maxell Holdings, Ltd., before returning to Maxell, Ltd. in October 2021. They continue to develop new technologies, such as all-solid-state batteries. Maxell is actively engaged in business, as evidenced by recent notices regarding business transfers and product exhibitions.

Assignment timeline

  • 2021-11-29 (executed) / recorded 2021-11-29 — Reel 059941/0815
    • Conveyance: MERGER (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS)
    • Assignor: MAXELL, LTD.
    • Assignee: MAXELL HOLDINGS, LTD.
    • Correspondent: MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY LLP, 500 NORTH CAPITAL STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20001
    • Context: internal reorg
  • 2021-12-03 (executed) / recorded 2021-12-03 — Reel 059942/0698
    • Conveyance: CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS)
    • Assignor: MAXELL HOLDINGS, LTD.
    • Assignee: MAXELL, LTD.
    • Correspondent: MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY LLP, 500 NORTH CAPITAL STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20001 (This correspondent recurs in this chain.)
    • Context: change of name

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11277650
    2020 : Application filed by Maxell Ltd
    2021 : Assigned to Maxell Holdings Ltd
         : Name changed to Maxell Ltd
    2022 : Issued to Maxell Ltd
    2025 : PTAB case IPR2025-01308 filed
         : US District Court case filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The transfers noted are internal reorganizations and a name change within the Maxell corporate structure. Maxell Ltd. is an operating company with a diverse product portfolio.

  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. The assignees are Maxell, Ltd. and Maxell Holdings, Ltd., both associated with the operating company Maxell. There is no indication of transfer to a known NPE.

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. McDermott Will & Emery LLP appears as the correspondent for both the 2021-11-29 merger (Reel 059941/0815) and the 2021-12-03 change of name (Reel 059942/0698).

  4. Cascading transfers — not present. The two recorded events are closely dated in late 2021 and represent an internal corporate restructuring (merger and subsequent name change back to the original operating company name), not a series of transfers through different entities.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The last assignment event was in December 2021. The first litigation case (PTAB IPR2025-01308) was filed in 2025, significantly more than 6 months after the last transfer. The US District Court case (5:25-cv-00052) was filed on April 21, 2025.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Maxell Ltd. is an active, publicly traded company.

  7. Privateering — not present. Maxell Ltd. is the current owner and is actively engaged in a patent assertion against Samsung in the Eastern District of Texas. This appears to be a direct assertion by an operating company.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current owner is Maxell Ltd., an operating company. While Unified Patents is the petitioner in an IPR against this patent, which is a defensive action, the patent's ownership is not held by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. Maxell Ltd. (an operating company) remains the current assignee of US11277650B2 per the Google Patents record and appears to be actively asserting the patent in district court litigation against Samsung (case 5:25-cv-00052, filed April 21, 2025). The recorded assignments show internal corporate changes (merger and name change in late 2021, Reel 059941/0815 and 059942/0698), not transfers to a shell entity.

USPTO Assignment Center search page: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/20/2026, 6:47:50 AM