Assignment history

Inventors

• Dieter Suess. The patent application lists "Individual" as the original assignee, indicating that Dieter Suess was likely the original applicant and inventor without an immediate corporate employer listed on the application. He later assigned the patent to Mr Technologies GmbH.

Original assignee

The patent was issued to the individual inventor, Dieter Suess. It was subsequently assigned to Mr Technologies GmbH on 2025-05-02. Mr Technologies GmbH is identified by Unified Patents as a Non-Practicing Entity (NPE). Its primary line of business appears to be intellectual property assertion, as it is involved in multiple litigation cases related to this patent family. There is no public information suggesting Mr Technologies GmbH ships products embodying the claims of the patent, which relate to multilayer exchange spring recording media. The company is currently active.

Assignment timeline

• 2025-05-02 (executed) / recorded 2025-05-02 — Reel 067097/0854
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: SUESS, DIETER
  • Assignee: MR TECHNOLOGIES, GMBH
  • Correspondent: SCHNADER HARRISON SEGAL & LEWIS LLP, 1600 MARKET STREET SUITE 3600, PHILADELPHIA PA 19103-7286.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter from individual inventor to an IP holding company.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12020734
    2021 : Application filed by individual
    2024 : Patent granted to individual
         : First litigation (8:24-cv-01848)
    2025 : Assigned to Mr Technologies GmbH
         : Other litigations filed
    2026 : IPR filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The patent was transferred from an individual inventor to MR TECHNOLOGIES, GMBH (Reel 067097/0854, 2025-05-02), which is identified by Unified Patents as a Non-Practicing Entity (NPE). There is no indication of Mr Technologies GmbH manufacturing or shipping products embodying the patent's claims.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. MR TECHNOLOGIES, GMBH is the current assignee (Reel 067097/0854, 2025-05-02) and is explicitly listed as an NPE by Unified Patents. Furthermore, the patent family is involved in multiple litigations and an IPR challenge.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded for this specific patent, so there is no recurrence of a correspondent within this chain.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only a single assignment from the inventor to Mr Technologies GmbH is recorded.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The first reported litigation case (8:24-cv-01848, filed in 2024) predates the assignment of the granted patent to MR TECHNOLOGIES, GMBH (Reel 067097/0854, 2025-05-02).
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy filings related to the assignor or assignee in the chain.
7. Privateering — Unclear. While the patent is held by a known NPE, there is no public information or SEC filings directly linking Mr Technologies GmbH to an operating company's assertion strategy on their behalf.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently held by an entity actively involved in litigation, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. The patent was assigned to Mr Technologies GmbH (Reel 067097/0854, 2025-05-02), an entity explicitly identified as a Non-Practicing Entity by Unified Patents. This transfer to a known asserter, coupled with ongoing litigation related to the patent family, provides strong evidence of an NPE assertion pattern.

For verification, see the USPTO Assignment Center search results for US12020734: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/