Assignment history

Inventors

• Richard Quick: Inari Medical Inc.
• Benjamin Edward Merritt: Inari Medical Inc.
• Paul Lubock: Inari Medical Inc.
• John Coleman Thress: Inari Medical Inc.

It is generally presumed that inventions made by an employee in the course of their employment are owned by the employer, especially if the employee's role involves innovation or research related to the company's business. Given that all listed inventors are associated with Inari Medical Inc., it's highly probable they were employed by Inari Medical Inc. at the time of filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Inari Medical Inc.

Inari Medical Inc. is a medical device company focused on developing products to treat patients suffering from venous thromboembolism (VTE), specifically deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Their product portfolio includes catheter-based mechanical thrombectomy systems like the ClotTriever and FlowTriever systems, the InThrill system, and the RevCore thrombectomy catheter. These products are designed to remove large clots from vessels and often eliminate the need for thrombolytic drugs.

Inari Medical Inc. was acquired by Stryker Corporation on February 19, 2025, for approximately $4.9 billion. Upon completion of the merger, Inari became a wholly owned subsidiary of Stryker. Prior to the acquisition, Inari Medical was a publicly listed company on NASDAQ (NARI).

Assignment timeline

• 2023-09-06 (executed) / recorded 2023-09-06

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: INCEPTUS MEDICAL, LLC
  • Assignee: INARI MEDICAL, INC.
  • Correspondent: Not specified in the provided patent text.
  • Context: Internal reorg (Inari Medical was formerly known as Inceptus Newco1 Inc.)

• 2023-09-06 (executed) / recorded 2023-09-06

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: QUICK, RICHARD
  • Assignee: INCEPTUS MEDICAL, LLC
  • Correspondent: Not specified in the provided patent text.
  • Context: Assignment from an inventor to an entity that later assigned to Inari Medical.

• 2024-03-07 (executed) / recorded 2024-03-07

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: LUBOCK, PAUL, MERRITT, Benjamin Edward, THRESS, JOHN COLEMAN
  • Assignee: Inari Medical, Inc.
  • Correspondent: Not specified in the provided patent text.
  • Context: Assignment from inventors to the operating company.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12156669
    2018 : Priority date
    2019 : Original application filed
    2023 : Filed by Inari Medical Inc
         : Inceptus Medical assigns to Inari
         : Quick assigns to Inceptus Medical
    2024 : Inventors assign to Inari Medical
         : Patent granted
    2025 : Inari acquired by Stryker
    2026 : IPR filed (Pending)
         : Infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The assignments show transfers from inventors and an earlier entity (Inceptus Medical, LLC) to Inari Medical, Inc., which is an operating company with a product portfolio. Inari Medical Inc. itself was later acquired by Stryker Corporation, another operating company.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Inari Medical Inc. is a medical device company that develops and sells products. The current owner, Stryker Corporation, is also a global leader in medical technologies. There is no evidence of a known NPE in the chain.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. The provided patent text from Google Patents lists "USPTO Assignment" as a link but does not detail correspondent information for the listed reassignment events. To fully assess this, a direct search on the USPTO Assignment Center would be needed.

4. Cascading transfers — Not present. The assignments occur over a period of time (September 2023 to March 2024) and primarily involve the transfer of inventor rights and a legacy entity's rights to the main operating company, Inari Medical, Inc.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The patent was granted on December 3, 2024. The US litigation (5:24-cv-03117) was filed on May 22, 2024, which is before the patent granted. The IPR (IPR2026-00169) was filed in 2026. The assignments to Inari Medical from inventors and Inceptus Medical occurred in 2023 and early 2024. There is no evidence of an assignment within 6 months before the first infringement suit that would suggest a pre-litigation transfer to enable assertion.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Inari Medical Inc. was acquired by Stryker Corporation in February 2025. This was a strategic acquisition, not a bankruptcy fire-sale.

7. Privateering — Not present. The current litigation involves Inari Medical, Inc. as the plaintiff against Imperative Care, Inc., which appears to be a competitor in the medical device space. Inari Medical ships products embodying the claims.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The current assignee is Stryker Corporation, an operating company. The ongoing litigation involves Inari Medical (now a Stryker subsidiary) asserting patents against a competitor.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent was originally assigned to Inari Medical Inc., an operating company that developed and commercialized medical devices for treating venous thromboembolism. The patent was subsequently acquired as part of a larger acquisition of Inari Medical Inc. by Stryker Corporation, another major medical technology company. The ongoing litigation, Inari Medical, Inc. v. Imperative Care, Inc., et al. (5:24-cv-03117), filed in May 2024, shows Inari Medical (or its successor, Stryker) asserting the patent against a competitor, which is characteristic of an operating-company assertion.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US12156669