Patent 11991234B2

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.

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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

As a senior patent prosecution analyst, I have reconstructed the assignment history and ownership chain for US patent 11,991,234 B2 based on a search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database.

Inventors

  • David F. Brueck
  • Mark B. Hurst
  • R. Drew Major

At the time of the invention's priority date (2004-2005), the inventors were associated with the original assignee, Dish Technologies LLC or a related entity. Public records show multiple patents from inventors Brueck and Hurst assigned to Dish, confirming their employment. R. Drew Major is a well-known technologist and co-founder of Novell. There are no unusual patterns suggesting a departure of all inventors shortly after filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee listed on the patent is Dish Technologies LLC.

Dish Technologies LLC is the technology development arm of Dish Network, a major US-based satellite television provider. The company is an operating entity that has shipped products directly embodying the claims of the patent, most notably through its Sling TV streaming service, which relies on the adaptive multi-bitrate streaming technology described. Dish Network is an active, publicly traded company.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database for US Patent 11,991,234 B2 shows no recorded assignments after its issuance. The initial assignment from the inventors to the original assignee would have occurred during the prosecution of the parent applications. The lack of recorded transfers indicates that ownership has remained with the original assignee, Dish Technologies LLC.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11991234B2
    2004 : Priority date
    2005 : First non-provisional filed
    2022 : This application filed
    2024 : Issued to Dish Technologies LLC
         : Litigation filed by Dish

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. No transfer from the original operating company assignee (Dish Technologies LLC) has been recorded.

  2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. The only entity in the chain is Dish Technologies LLC, an operating company. While Dish engages in patent litigation, it is not primarily a non-practicing entity (NPE).

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. There is no recorded chain of assignments to analyze.

  4. Cascading transfers: Not present. No assignments have been recorded.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The litigation identified in the patent's legal events was initiated by the original assignee, Dish Technologies LLC. There was no transfer to a third party for assertion purposes.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. The original assignee is a solvent, operating company.

  7. Privateering: Not present. Dish is asserting the patent on its own behalf, not through a third-party NPE.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The evidence strongly supports this verdict. The original assignee, Dish Technologies LLC, is a well-established operating company whose streaming services (Sling TV) practice the technology claimed in the patent. The patent has not been sold or transferred since its issuance. The associated litigation is a direct assertion by this operating company against alleged infringers, which is a classic example of an operating company enforcing its intellectual property rights.

Verification Link: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for Pat. No. 11991234

Generated 5/10/2026, 7:06:38 PM