Assignment history

Inventors

• Michael Ragusa: The sole named inventor on the patent. At the time of filing, Michael Ragusa was an employee of Haemonetics Corporation, who was assigned the invention. There are no unusual patterns, such as inventor departures, noted in the record.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Haemonetics Corporation, a publicly traded (NYSE: HAE) global medical technology company headquartered in Boston, MA. Founded in 1971, Haemonetics is a major operating company that develops, manufactures, and sells a wide range of products for blood and plasma collection and processing, including apheresis systems, autotransfusion devices, and related software. The subject matter of US Patent 12,171,916, a "System and method for collecting plasma," falls squarely within Haemonetics' core product lines. The company is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

• 2021-03-17 (executed) / recorded 2021-03-18 — Reel 055642/0137

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Michael Ragusa
  • Assignee: Haemonetics Corporation
  • Correspondent: Joseph M. Noto, The Noto Law Group LLP, 1600 South Avenue, Suite 203, Rochester, NY 14620.
  • Context: Standard inventor-to-employer assignment executed at the time of the patent application filing.

• 2025-02-18 (executed) / recorded 2025-02-19 — Reel 073115/0567

  • Conveyance: Corrective Assignment
  • Assignor: Michael Ragusa
  • Assignee: Haemonetics Corporation
  • Correspondent: Joseph M. Noto, The Noto Law Group LLP, 1600 South Avenue, Suite 203, Rochester, NY 14620. The correspondent is the same as in the original assignment.
  • Context: A corrective filing to amend an error in the original assignment document and confirm the assignment to the original assignee.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12171916
    2021 : Filed by Haemonetics Corp
         : Assigned by inventor Michael Ragusa
    2024 : Issued
    2025 : Corrective assignment filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The patent has only been assigned to Haemonetics Corporation, a large, publicly traded operating company.
2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Haemonetics Corporation is a product company and does not appear on public lists of non-practicing entities.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present (as an NPE signal). The same correspondent, Joseph M. Noto, appears on both recorded assignments (Reels 055642/0137 and 073115/0567). However, this is expected and normal corporate practice, as the second filing was merely a correction of the first, both on behalf of the same assignee. This does not indicate NPE activity.
4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There have been no subsequent transfers after the initial assignment.
5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The only transfers were an initial assignment and a correction; no litigation has been filed.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. Haemonetics Corporation is a financially healthy, operating company.
7. Privateering: Not present. The patent remains with the original operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

• Insufficient data

The recorded ownership chain for US Patent 12,171,916 shows only a standard assignment from the inventor to his employer, Haemonetics Corporation (Reel 055642/0137), and a subsequent clerical correction of that assignment (Reel 073115/0567). Haemonetics is an operating company that makes products in this technology area. As the patent has never been transferred to a third party, there are no signals of NPE or patent troll-related activity.

A record of this ownership chain can be verified by searching for patent number 12171916 at the USPTO Patent Assignment Search portal: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/.