Assignment history

Inventors

• Brad THOMAS (Vermeer Manufacturing Co)
• Louis Hartke (Vermeer Manufacturing Co)
• Greg Langenfeld (Vermeer Manufacturing Co)
• Matt Hutchinson (Vermeer Manufacturing Co)

It is a common practice for employees to assign their patent rights to their employer, often through an employment agreement, particularly when the invention is made within the scope of their employment or if they were hired to invent. Given that all inventors are listed as assignors to Vermeer Manufacturing Company at the time of the initial assignment, it is highly probable they were employed by Vermeer. There is no indication of inventors departing within 12 months of filing.

Original assignee

Vermeer Manufacturing Co (now Vermeer Corporation) is the entity named on the issued patent.

Vermeer Manufacturing Co. is a global manufacturer of industrial and agricultural equipment, including compact tool carriers, hay balers, trenchers, horizontal directional drills, stump cutters, and surface excavation machines. They ship products embodying the claims, as the patent itself describes a "compact tool carrier 5" that includes components like the loader, mainframe, and drive mechanism, which are core to their product lines.

Vermeer Corporation is privately held and is currently operating. They have recently announced significant expansions and investments in new manufacturing facilities.

Assignment timeline

• 2022-10-07 (executed) / recorded 2022-10-07 — Reel 061347/0147
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: LANGENFELD, GREG, THOMAS, BRAD, HARTKE, LOUIS, HUTCHINSON, MATT
  • Assignee: VERMEER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
  • Correspondent: Not listed in the provided patent text for this entry.
  • Context: Internal transfer of inventor rights to employer.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12098063
    2015 : Priority date
    2022 : Inventors assign to Vermeer
    2024 : Patent granted

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The sole assignee is Vermeer Manufacturing Company, a known operating company.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Vermeer Manufacturing Company is not listed as a known NPE.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. The correspondent information is not available in the provided patent text for the assignment record.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There is only one recorded assignment from the inventors to Vermeer Manufacturing Company.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The assignment from the inventors to Vermeer Manufacturing Company occurred in October 2022, and the patent was granted in September 2024. No litigation information is present in the provided patent text.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Vermeer Corporation is an active and expanding company.
7. Privateering — not present. No evidence of transfer to an NPE for assertion on behalf of an operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee is an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent is currently assigned to Vermeer Manufacturing Company, which is a large, active manufacturer of industrial and agricultural equipment. The only assignment recorded is from the inventors to Vermeer Manufacturing Company (Reel 061347/0147, recorded 2022-10-07), which is a standard practice for employee inventions. There are no other signals indicating an NPE pattern.

USPTO Assignment Center search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search by patent number US12098063)