Assignment history

Inventors

The sole named inventor is Steven J. Altamura. At the time of filing (August 12, 2021), Steven J. Altamura was likely employed by or contracting with Seasonal Specialties LLC, as they are listed as the original assignee and he is identified as their Director of Engineering. There is no indication of unusual inventor departure patterns.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is Seasonal Specialties LLC.

Seasonal Specialties LLC is an active, privately held company specializing in the import, wholesale, and distribution of holiday lighting, artificial trees, wreaths, garlands, and other seasonal decorations. They supply products to major retailers and commercial clients. The patent describes resistive bypass circuits for use in various lighting products, including mini-bulb lighting strings, rope lights, and artificial trees, strongly indicating that Seasonal Specialties LLC ships products embodying the claims of US 11533794. Steven Altamura, the inventor, is listed as the Director of Engineering for Seasonal Specialties.

The company is currently operating and headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database for patent number US11533794 (and its application number US17/400,338) found no recorded assignments. This indicates that the patent was issued directly to Seasonal Specialties LLC as the applicant and has not had any subsequent assignments publicly recorded with the USPTO.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11533794
    2021 : Application filed by Seasonal Specialties LLC
    2022 : Patent issued to Seasonal Specialties LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The patent was issued to Seasonal Specialties LLC, which is an active operating company manufacturing and distributing seasonal lighting products. There is no recorded transfer to a licensing-only LLC.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Seasonal Specialties LLC is not identified as a known NPE/patent asserter on public lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. No assignment records were found, so there is no chain of correspondents to analyze.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. No assignment records were found.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. While Google Patents indicates ongoing litigation related to this patent (a US District Court case filed in 2023 and a PTAB case filed in 2024), there are no recorded assignments in the USPTO database leading up to these dates. This indicates the patent remained with the original assignee, Seasonal Specialties LLC, during this period.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Seasonal Specialties LLC is an active company and there are no indications of bankruptcy proceedings.
7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence of a transfer from an operating company to an NPE for assertion purposes. The patent remains with the operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is still held by Seasonal Specialties LLC.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent US11533794 was issued directly to Seasonal Specialties LLC, an active operating company that manufactures and distributes lighting products. No assignments have been recorded, indicating the patent has remained with this company. The presence of litigation (District Court case 2:23-cv-06318 and PTAB IPR2024-01259) cited in the Google Patents record suggests assertion by this operating company against alleged infringers.

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