Assignment history

Inventors

• Gabriel Jakobson: Employer at time of original priority application filing (October 12, 2007) is not specified in the patent or assignment records. The assignment record indicates he assigned his inventor's interest, suggesting he was an independent inventor or his employer did not claim the invention by default.
• Steven L. Rueben: Employer at time of original priority application filing (October 12, 2007) is not specified in the patent or assignment records. He, like Jakobson, assigned his inventor's interest, suggesting independent inventor status or non-employer claim.

There are no unusual patterns, such as inventors departing the original assignee, discernible from the provided information.

Original assignee

The patent application US16/570,298, which led to US11937145, was filed by Nearby Systems LLC. However, the underlying rights were transferred from the inventors to Empire IP LLC in 2012, and then from Empire IP LLC to Nearby Systems LLC in 2022, prior to the patent's issuance. Therefore, Nearby Systems LLC is listed as the assignee on the issued patent.

Nearby Systems LLC is identified as a patent assertion entity whose business model focuses on licensing and enforcing patents related to proximity-aware systems, rather than shipping products embodying the claims. The entity is active and has been involved in extensive patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting location-based technology patents against various companies with mobile applications.

Assignment timeline

• 2012-04-10 (executed) / recorded 2012-04-12 — Reel 028292/0970

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: STEVEN L. RUEBEN AND GABRIEL JAKOBSON (INVENTORS)
  • Assignee: EMPIRE IP LLC
  • Correspondent: ROBERT S. CHUNG, GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP. 200 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10166.
  • Context: Transfer of inventor's rights to an intellectual property holding company.

• 2022-05-13 (executed) / recorded 2022-05-16 — Reel 059436/0474

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: EMPIRE IP LLC
  • Assignee: NEARBY SYSTEMS LLC
  • Correspondent: JOHN S. ARTZ, ARTZ & ARTZ, P.C. 28333 Telegraph Road, Ste 210, Southfield, MI 48034.
  • Context: Transfer from one intellectual property holding company to another, immediately preceding assertion of the patent family.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11937145
    2007 : Priority application filed
    2012 : Inventors assign to Empire IP LLC
    2019 : Continuation application filed
    2022 : Empire IP LLC assigns to Nearby Systems LLC
    2024 : Patent issued to Nearby Systems LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The initial transfer of inventor rights was to "EMPIRE IP LLC" (Reel 028292/0970), a name consistent with a licensing-focused entity. Subsequently, Empire IP LLC transferred the application to "NEARBY SYSTEMS LLC" (Reel 059436/0474), which has been identified as a patent assertion entity and does not ship products.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. Nearby Systems LLC is explicitly identified as a "patent assertion entity" by PatSnap Eureka and RPX.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. The assignment from the inventors to Empire IP LLC used Robert S. Chung of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. (Reel 028292/0970), while the assignment from Empire IP LLC to Nearby Systems LLC used John S. Artz of Artz & Artz, P.C. (Reel 059436/0474).
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is a 10-year gap between the two recorded assignments.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The assignment to Nearby Systems LLC was executed on 2022-05-13 and recorded on 2022-05-16 (Reel 059436/0474). The patent family associated with US11937145 began to be litigated as part of a campaign starting in June 2022. This transfer occurred within one month of the commencement of litigation for the patent family, indicating it was closely associated with enabling assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. No evidence of bankruptcy proceedings affecting the patent ownership chain.
7. Privateering — Not present. The initial transfer was from inventors to an intellectual property holding company, not from an operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate with any known defensive aggregators.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. The chain of ownership for US11937145 exhibits multiple strong signals of patent assertion entity behavior, including transfers to shell-like entities (Empire IP LLC, then to Nearby Systems LLC, Reel 028292/0970, Reel 059436/0474), the explicit identification of Nearby Systems LLC as a patent assertion entity, and a pre-litigation transfer of the patent rights to Nearby Systems LLC immediately prior to the commencement of a litigation campaign involving this patent family in June 2022.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US11937145: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/