Assignment history

Inventors

• George M. Church: Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Core Faculty Member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
• Jehyuk Lee: Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Fellow in the Church lab at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
• Daniel Levner: Senior Staff Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
• Michael Super: Senior Staff Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

All inventors were employed by or directly affiliated with Harvard University at the time the invention was developed and filed. No unusual departure patterns have been identified.

Original assignee

The original assignee is the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the legal name for Harvard University. Harvard University is a major private research university. It does not directly manufacture or ship commercial products in the traditional sense. Instead, its primary line of business is education and research, and it commercializes its intellectual property through a technology transfer office that licenses patents to both established companies and university-founded startups. Harvard University is an active operating entity.

Assignment timeline

• 2012-12-21 (executed) / recorded 2021-09-03 — Reel 2021013727/0401

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: George M. Church; Jehyuk Lee; Daniel Levner; Michael Super
  • Assignee: President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • Correspondent: David A. Wilson, Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C., 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02210
  • Context: Standard initial assignment of invention rights from the inventors to their employer, Harvard University.

• 2023-11-09 (executed) / recorded 2023-12-06 — Reel 2023015431/0942

  • Conveyance: Confirmatory License
  • Assignor: President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • Assignee: The Government of the United States of America as Represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
  • Correspondent: Richard A. Salcido, President and Fellows of Harvard College, Office of Technology Development, Smith Campus Center, Suite 727, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • Context: Confirmatory license granting the U.S. government rights to the invention, a standard procedure required for inventions developed using federal research funding (e.g., from the National Institutes of Health). This does not transfer primary ownership.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11566276
    2012 : Inventors execute assignment to Harvard
    2021 : Application filed by Harvard
         : Inventor assignment recorded
    2023 : Patent issued
         : Confirmatory license to US Govt
    2026 : Harvard asserts patent vs Element Bio

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The only assignee is Harvard University, a major operating research institution, and a confirmatory license was granted to the U.S. Government.
2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Harvard University is not considered an NPE.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. The two recordings were handled by different correspondents: an outside law firm for the initial inventor assignment and Harvard's internal tech transfer office for the government license. This is a normal pattern.
4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There is only one primary assignment recorded.
5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The patent has not been transferred. Harvard, the original assignee, is the plaintiff in the May 2026 litigation.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present.
7. Privateering: Not present. Harvard is asserting the patent directly.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

Harvard University, the original developer and assignee of the technology, has retained ownership of US 11,566,276 since its invention. The assignment record, verified at the USPTO Assignment Center, shows only a standard inventor-to-employer transfer (Reel 2021013727/0401) and a required confirmatory license to the U.S. government for federally-funded research (Reel 2023015431/0942). The subsequent infringement suit against Element Biosciences is a direct assertion by the operating entity that developed the technology.

Verification link: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search for patent number 11566276)