Assignment history

Inventors

• Yurie Matsuyama: The sole inventor listed on the patent. At the time of the original Japanese filing (January 27, 2015), the original assignee was NEC Corporation, making it highly probable that Yurie Matsuyama was an employee of NEC Corporation. There are no unusual patterns, such as inventor departure, discernible from the public record.

Original assignee

• NEC Corporation: The original assignee is NEC Corporation, a major Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. NEC is an operating company that develops and sells products in areas including telecommunications, semiconductors, and IT services. They have historically developed and shipped optical networking equipment, which would embody the claims of this patent. The company remains a major operating entity.

Assignment timeline

The USPTO Patent Assignment database records a clear chain of transfers from the original operating company to the current asserting entity.

• 2024-03-13 (executed) / recorded 2024-03-21 — Reel 066867/0886

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: NEC CORPORATION
  • Assignee: NEC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
  • Correspondent: Suzanne K. Henderson, Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A., Fort Myers, FL
  • Context: Internal corporate reorganization, moving the patent from the Japanese parent company to a Singapore-based subsidiary.

• 2024-09-30 (executed) / recorded 2024-10-03 — Reel 068783/0632

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: NEC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
  • Assignee: IP WAVE PTE. LTD.
  • Correspondent: Andrea Hence Evans, The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans, LLC, Forestville, MD
  • Context: A portfolio sale from the operating company's subsidiary to a known patent monetization firm that acquires patents from Japanese corporations for subsequent sale to asserting entities.

• 2025-02-17 (executed) / recorded 2025-03-20 — Reel 070575/0077 (Corrected by Reel 073349/0966)

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: IP WAVE PTE. LTD.
  • Assignee: PLS XLIV LLC
  • Correspondent: Kunal P. Shah, Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd., Chicago, IL. This correspondent recurs on subsequent transfers in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer from the monetization firm to a special purpose LLC, likely created specifically to hold and assert this patent portfolio.

• 2025-04-29 (executed) / recorded 2025-10-01 — Reel 072987/0619

  • Conveyance: Change of Name
  • Assignor: PLS XLIV LLC
  • Assignee: RADIANT PATENTS LLC
  • Correspondent: Kunal P. Shah, Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd., Chicago, IL. The same correspondent from the prior transaction.
  • Context: A simple change of name for the holding LLC, establishing the final entity name that would be used for litigation.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11431431
    2015 : Priority date via NEC Corp
    2022 : Issued to NEC Corp
    2024 : Assigned to NEC Asia Pacific
         : Sold to IP WAVE PTE LTD
    2025 : Sold to PLS XLIV LLC
         : Renamed to Radiant Patents LLC
    2026 : First infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The patent was moved from an operating company (NEC Corporation) to a series of LLCs and private limited companies (IP WAVE PTE. LTD., PLS XLIV LLC, Radiant Patents LLC) that do not appear to have commercial products. Radiant Patents LLC, the current assignee and plaintiff, is a Delaware LLC with a name indicating a patent-holding function. (Reels 068783/0632, 070575/0077, 072987/0619).

2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. Radiant Patents LLC is the plaintiff in litigation (Case 2:26-cv-00074) asserting this patent, making it a known asserter by definition.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Present. The correspondent Kunal P. Shah of Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd. handled the critical transfer from IP WAVE PTE. LTD. to PLS XLIV LLC (Reel 070575/0077), the subsequent corrective assignment (Reel 073349/0966), and the change of name to the final asserting entity, Radiant Patents LLC (Reel 072987/0619). This indicates a single agent managing the setup of the assertion vehicle.

4. Cascading transfers — Present. The patent was transferred from NEC's subsidiary to IP WAVE in October 2024, then from IP WAVE to PLS XLIV LLC in March 2025, followed by a name change to Radiant Patents LLC recorded in October 2025. This sequence of three transfers/name changes occurred within approximately 12 months.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The final change of name to Radiant Patents LLC was executed on April 29, 2025, and the litigation was filed on January 26, 2026. The transfer establishing the asserting entity's direct predecessor (PLS XLIV LLC) occurred on February 17, 2025. Both events fall within a year of the litigation filing, showing the patent was acquired for the purpose of assertion.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The original assignee, NEC Corporation, is a solvent and operating company.

7. Privateering — Unclear. While this is a transfer from an operating company (NEC) to an NPE (Radiant Patents) that is now suing a competitor (Nokia), there is no public evidence of an ongoing financial relationship or agreement for NEC to share in the litigation proceeds.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive entity.

Verdict

• NPE — high confidence

This verdict is based on the presence of at least five strong, classic signals of NPE activity. The patent was transferred from its original creator, operating company NEC, through a monetization firm (IP WAVE) to a purpose-built LLC (PLS XLIV LLC, now Radiant Patents LLC) in a rapid cascade of transactions handled by a recurring correspondent (Reels 070575/0077 and 072987/0619). This entity then initiated litigation within a year of acquiring the patent, confirming the intent to assert without commercializing the invention.

Verify at the USPTO Patent Assignment Search Center (search for patent no. 11431431)