Patent 12221196

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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Ownership chain (1)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. 2024-09-02 · reel 000000/0000 · Assignment

    Yongfei Hua, Xiaofeng LiuAiper Global Pte Ltd

    acquisition

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.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Xiaofeng Liu
  • Yongfei Hua

At the time of filing, both inventors, Xiaofeng Liu and Yongfei Hua, were assignors to Aiper Global Pte Ltd, as indicated by the assignment record on 2024-09-02, where they assigned their interest to Aiper Global Pte Ltd.

Original assignee

Aiper Global Pte Ltd is the original assignee named on the issued patent. While the patent itself describes a swimming pool robot, it does not explicitly state that Aiper Global Pte Ltd shipped a product embodying the claims. However, Aiper Global Pte Ltd is known to be an operating company in the field of smart pool products, including robotic pool cleaners.

Their primary line of business appears to be the development and sale of robotic cleaning devices for swimming pools. As of the current date, Aiper Global Pte Ltd appears to be an active, operating company.

Assignment timeline

  • 2024-09-02 (executed) / recorded 2024-09-02 — Reel 000000/0000 (This information is derived from the patent's front page data, not a specific assignment record from USPTO Assignment Search, which shows "No records found.")
    • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
    • Assignor: Yongfei Hua, Xiaofeng Liu
    • Assignee: Aiper Global Pte Ltd
    • Correspondent: (Not specified in patent front page data)
    • Context: Original assignment from inventors to the applicant/assignee at filing.

No additional assignment records were found on the USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US12221196 as of 2026-05-26.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12221196
    2024 : Filed by Aiper Global Pte Ltd
         : Inventors assigned to Aiper Global Pte Ltd
    2025 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. There is no evidence of a transfer from an operating company to a licensing-only LLC. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to Aiper Global Pte Ltd, an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — unclear. While a PTAB case (PGR2026-00012) has been filed by Unified Patents LLC against this patent, which often targets NPE-held patents, Unified Patents LLC is acting as a petitioner in an IPR/PGR proceeding, not as an assignee. There is no indication in the assignment records that a known asserter is an assignee in the chain.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Only one assignment from the inventors to the original assignee is indicated in the patent data, and no correspondent information is available for this initial assignment. Without further assignment records, recurrence cannot be determined.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There is only one indicated assignment from the inventors to the original assignee.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The PTAB case PGR2026-00012 is pending, but its filing date is not explicitly provided in the provided text, making it impossible to determine if any transfer occurred within 6 months prior to litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no information to suggest that Aiper Global Pte Ltd has filed for bankruptcy or that the patent was sold in such proceedings.
  7. Privateering — not present. There is no information indicating a transfer to an NPE for assertion on behalf of an operating company.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — unclear. Unified Patents LLC is involved in a PTAB case against this patent, acting as a petitioner. While Unified Patents is an anti-NPE organization, its role here is challenging the patent's validity, not acquiring it for defensive purposes.

Verdict

Insufficient data. The USPTO Assignment Center search did not return any records for US12221196. The only assignment information available is from the patent's front page, indicating the initial assignment from the inventors to Aiper Global Pte Ltd. Without further recorded assignments, it is not possible to determine if any NPE activity has occurred or if the patent has been transferred to a defensive aggregator.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (Search for patent number 12221196)

Generated 5/26/2026, 12:48:20 PM