Assignment history

Inventors

• Francesco Baratto: Employed by Casale SA at the time of filing, as he assigned his rights to Casale SA.
• Raffaele Ostuni: Employed by Casale SA at the time of filing, as he assigned his rights to Casale SA.

No unusual patterns detected; the inventors assigned their rights to the filing entity, Casale SA, prior to the patent's issuance.

Original assignee

The original assignee, as named on the issued patent and at the time of filing, is Casale SA.
Casale SA is an operating company specializing in technologies for the production of fertilizers and other industrial chemicals, including ammonia, urea, and methanol. They design and supply plants and equipment for these processes. It is highly probable they ship products (technologies, plants, services) embodying the claims, as the patent describes a process for ammonia synthesis.
Their current status is operating.

Assignment timeline

• 2017-02-15 (executed) / recorded 2019-09-27 — Reel 049580/0675
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: BARATTO, FRANCESCO; OSTUNI, RAFFAELE
  • Assignee: CASALE SA
  • Correspondent: NIKLAUS SUTTER, Casale SA, Via Giulio Pocobelli 6, Lugano, CH-6900, Switzerland
  • Context: Assignment of inventor rights to the corporate entity.

The USPTO Patent Assignment Search shows only one record for US11286168, which is the assignment from the individual inventors to Casale SA. This indicates that Casale SA remains the recorded owner of the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11286168
    2018 : Filed by Casale SA
    2019 : Inventors assigned to Casale SA
    2022 : Patent issued to Casale SA
    2024 : First litigation filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the individual inventors to the operating company, Casale SA, which is a known industrial technology provider.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Casale SA is not listed on public NPE lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. There is only one recorded assignment, and thus no recurrence of correspondents to observe. The correspondent is an in-house attorney for Casale SA.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The assignment from inventors to Casale SA was executed on 2017-02-15 and recorded on 2019-09-27 (Reel 049580/0675). The first litigation involving this patent family was filed in 2024, several years after the assignment.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Casale SA appears to be an active, operating company.
7. Privateering — Unclear. There is no public information to suggest Casale SA is using an NPE to assert patents on their behalf.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent remains with the original operating company.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
Casale SA is the current recorded owner of the patent, having received it directly from the inventors in 2017 (recorded 2019-09-27, Reel 049580/0675). They are an operating company that provides technologies and plants relevant to the patent's claims. Litigation commenced in 2024, indicating assertion by the operating company rather than a transfer to a non-practicing entity.

For verification, see USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (Search by patent number 11286168).