Patent 11798576

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

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

The inventors named on US Patent 11,798,576 are Tobias Herbig, Meik Pfeffinger, and Bernd Iser. Based on the initial assignment records, these inventors assigned their rights to Nuance Communications, Inc. on November 1, 2019. This suggests they were employed by or contracted with Nuance Communications, Inc. at the time of the patent's effective filing.

Original assignee

The entity named as the assignee on the issued patent, US 11,798,576, is Cerence Operating Co., Burlington, MA (US).

Cerence Operating Co. is a company that develops AI-powered voice and conversational AI solutions for the automotive industry. Their primary line of business involves creating in-car communication systems, virtual assistants, and related technologies. Given the patent's focus on adaptive gain control in communication systems, it aligns directly with Cerence's product offerings. The company is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

The following assignment records are derived from the legal events section of the provided patent text, as a live USPTO assignment search could not be performed. Correspondent information is not available from this source.

  • 2019-11-01 (executed date not specified) / recorded 2019-11-01
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: HERBIG, TOBIAS; ISER, BERND; PFEFFINGER, MEIK
    • Assignee: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Correspondent: Not provided in source.
    • Context: Initial assignment of patent rights from the individual inventors to an operating company.
  • 2020-02-19 (executed date not specified) / recorded 2020-02-19
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: Not provided in source.
    • Context: Transfer of patent rights from Nuance Communications, Inc. to Cerence Operating Company, likely reflecting a corporate spin-off or internal reorganization.
  • 2020-07-14 (executed date not specified) / recorded 2020-07-14
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: HERBIG, TOBIAS; ISER, BERND; PFEFFINGER, MEIK
    • Assignee: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Correspondent: Not provided in source.
    • Context: A subsequent assignment from the inventors back to Nuance Communications, Inc., which could be a corrective action, clarification, or related to different aspects of the same intellectual property.
  • 2024-04-15 (executed date not specified) / recorded 2024-04-15 — Reel 067417/0296
    • Conveyance: Security Agreement
    • Assignor: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Assignee: WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
    • Correspondent: Not provided in source.
    • Context: Cerence Operating Company used the patent as collateral for a financing arrangement.
  • 2025-01-02 (executed date not specified) / recorded 2025-01-02 — Reel 067417/0303
    • Conveyance: Release
    • Assignor: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: Not provided in source.
    • Context: Wells Fargo Bank released its security interest, returning full unencumbered rights to Cerence Operating Company.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11798576
    2019 : Inventors assigned to Nuance Inc
    2020 : Nuance assigned to Cerence Co
         : Inventors assigned to Nuance Inc
    2024 : Cerence granted security to Wells Fargo
    2025 : Wells Fargo released security to Cerence

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The assignees (Nuance Communications, Inc. and Cerence Operating Company) are known operating companies in the speech technology and automotive AI sectors. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a financial institution involved in collateral agreements.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. None of the listed assignees (Nuance, Cerence, Wells Fargo) are identified as known patent assertion entities.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. Correspondent information (attorney name, firm, address) is not available from the provided patent text, preventing this analysis.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. While there are multiple transfers within a short period (2019-2020), these appear to be related to initial assignment from inventors and subsequent corporate restructuring (Nuance to Cerence), not a chain of transfers through shell entities. The later transfers are a security agreement and its release.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There is no recorded litigation involving this patent as of May 8, 2026.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication that any of the operating company assignors (Nuance or Cerence) filed for bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — not present. There is no information in the provided text or external checks that suggests an operating company transferred the patent to an NPE for assertion against competitors.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee, Cerence Operating Company, is an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data

The absence of correspondent information in the provided source material prevents a full assessment of several key NPE signals, such as repeat correspondents. While the entities identified (Nuance, Cerence, Wells Fargo) are known operating companies or financial institutions, without more detailed assignment records, a definitive high-confidence verdict for or against NPE activity cannot be made.

USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US11798576

Generated 5/29/2026, 9:04:32 PM