Patent 12185177

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

  • Gabriel Jakobson: Employer not determinable from the patent text.
  • Steven L. Rueben: Employer not determinable from the patent text.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Nearby Systems LLC.
Based on the provided patent information, it is not determinable whether Nearby Systems LLC shipped a product embodying the claims or their primary line of business. The current status of Nearby Systems LLC (operating, acquired, dissolved, in bankruptcy) is also not determinable from the given information.

Assignment timeline

No assignment records for US12185177 were found on the USPTO Assignment Center search page. This indicates that the original assignee, Nearby Systems LLC, likely still owns the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12185177
    2007 : Priority date of parent application
    2024 : Filed by Nearby Systems LLC
    2024 : Granted to Nearby Systems LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. No assignment records found to indicate a transfer from an operating company to a licensing-only LLC. Nearby Systems LLC is the original and current assignee. However, external litigation data identifies Nearby Systems LLC as a "patent assertion entity focused on location-based technology intellectual property. Its business model centers on licensing and enforcing patents related to proximity-aware systems." This suggests that while there isn't a transfer to a shell entity, the original assignee itself operates as such.

  2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. Nearby Systems LLC is identified as a "patent assertion entity" in public litigation databases. They have filed patent infringement lawsuits against multiple companies, including Little Caesar Enterprises, Cinemark USA, Kohls Corporation, and Exxon Mobil Corporation.

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. No assignment records were found.

  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. No assignment records were found.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. Without assignment records, it's impossible to determine if any transfers occurred within 6 months of litigation. However, the patent was filed in February 2024 and granted in December 2024, and Nearby Systems LLC has been actively filing infringement suits in 2025 and 2026. This suggests that the intent for assertion was likely present from or near the time of filing.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. No indication of Nearby Systems LLC being in bankruptcy.

  7. Privateering — Unclear. No evidence from the provided information suggests privateering activity.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently owned by Nearby Systems LLC, an asserting entity.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. Nearby Systems LLC, the sole assignee of record, is explicitly identified as a "patent assertion entity focused on location-based technology intellectual property" whose "business model centers on licensing and enforcing patents related to proximity-aware systems". They have initiated numerous patent infringement lawsuits against various companies, including Little Caesar Enterprises, Cinemark USA, Kohls Corporation, and Exxon Mobil Corporation, consistent with an NPE operating pattern.

(USPTO Assignment Center search for US12185177: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/)

Generated 5/20/2026, 12:45:35 PM