Patent 12038247

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.

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Inventors

Original assignee

The original assignee, as named on the issued patent and at the time of filing, is ABC IP LLC.

ABC IP LLC is involved in the firearm industry, specifically with trigger mechanisms for AR-pattern firearms, including a "drop-in" replacement trigger module. The provided information does not explicitly state whether ABC IP LLC itself ships a product embodying the claims. However, they are actively asserting the patent in litigation.

Current Status: Active and litigating. The patent's legal status is "Active", and ABC IP LLC is the plaintiff in several infringement suits related to this patent.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database (assignmentcenter.uspto.gov) for US Patent No. 12,038,247 yielded no recorded assignments. This indicates that the original assignee, ABC IP LLC, remains the current owner of record as reflected on the patent's front page and in Google Patents data, and no subsequent transfers have been publicly recorded.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12038247
    2022 : Priority date
    2023 : Application filed by ABC IP LLC
    2024 : Patent issued to ABC IP LLC
    2026 : First infringement suit filed
         : No further recorded assignments

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer: Unclear. While "ABC IP LLC" suggests an intellectual property holding company, there is no explicit information in the provided context (e.g., registered-agent address, confirmation of no products in commerce) to definitively classify it as a shell entity. However, the extensive litigation activity is characteristic of an entity primarily focused on patent assertion.
  2. Known asserter in the chain: Present. The current assignee, ABC IP LLC, is actively asserting this patent against multiple defendants across various U.S. District Courts. The presence of "Unified Patents Litigation Data" in the Google Patents record and the listing of multiple cases by Unified Patents against this patent family further suggest that ABC IP LLC is recognized as a high-frequency plaintiff or NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. There are no recorded assignments for this patent on the USPTO Assignment Center, so no correspondent records are available for review.
  4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There are no recorded assignments for this patent on the USPTO Assignment Center.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The patent was assigned to ABC IP LLC on its filing date (2023-05-30), well before the first recorded litigation filing date of March 23, 2026. There are no recorded assignments within six months of the litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. No information indicates ABC IP LLC has filed for bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering: Unclear. There is no information in the provided context to determine if ABC IP LLC is asserting patents on behalf of an operating company.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent is currently being asserted by ABC IP LLC, rather than being held by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The verdict is high confidence NPE due to the current assignee, ABC IP LLC, being the plaintiff in numerous infringement lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions. This extensive and geographically dispersed litigation activity, coupled with the nature of the entity's name ("IP LLC"), strongly indicates a primary business model of patent assertion.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US12038247

Generated 6/1/2026, 12:48:03 PM