Assignment history

Inventors

• Bart D'hoore (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Christoph Halboth (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Holger Quast (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Dino Seppi (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Markus Funk (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Tom Claes (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)
• Christophe Ris (Employer: Cerence Operating Co)

All named inventors were employed by Cerence Operating Co at the time of filing, with their interests in the patent assigned to the company. No unusual patterns, such as a mass departure of inventors, are discernible from the provided information.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent, US12236947, is Cerence Operating Company. Cerence Inc. (which includes Cerence Operating Company) is an American multinational software company that develops artificial intelligence (AI) assistant technology primarily for the automotive and broader mobility and transportation markets. They provide a software platform for building conversational AI solutions, which are delivered on a white-label basis to automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Their technology is directly embodied in products such as in-vehicle voice assistants, which leverage multimodal inputs including audio and visual cues to process commands, aligning directly with the claims of the '947 patent. Cerence Inc. was spun off from Nuance Communications in October 2019 and is currently an active, publicly traded company on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CRNC.

Assignment timeline

The following assignment records are identified for US patent 12236947:

• 2023-07-10 (executed) / recorded 2023-07-10 — Reel 064199/0731

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: CLAES, TOM; QUAST, HOLGER; D'HOORE, BART; HALBOTH, CHRISTOPH; RIS, Christophe; SEPPI, DINO; FUNK, Markus
  • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
  • Correspondent: Not explicitly available from Google Patents Legal Events.
  • Context: Initial assignment of patent rights from the inventors to their employer, Cerence Operating Company, at the time of the patent application filing.

• 2024-04-12 (executed) / recorded 2024-04-15 — Reel 067417/0303

  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
  • Assignee: WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
  • Correspondent: Not explicitly available from Google Patents Legal Events.
  • Context: Cerence Operating Company pledged the patent as collateral in a financing arrangement with Wells Fargo Bank.

• 2024-12-31 (executed) / recorded 2025-01-02 — Reel 069797/0422

  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
  • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
  • Correspondent: Not explicitly available from Google Patents Legal Events.
  • Context: Wells Fargo Bank released its security interest in the patent, restoring full unencumbered rights to Cerence Operating Company.

Note: Correspondent information for these records was not explicitly available in the provided Google Patents legal event data, and a live USPTO Assignment search cannot be performed by the model.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12236947
    2023 : Inventors assigned to Cerence
    2024 : Security agreement with Wells Fargo
    2025 : Security interest released
         : Patent issued to Cerence

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The patent has consistently been held by Cerence Operating Company, an operating company with a clear business in automotive AI. The recorded transfers involve a security interest with a bank, not a transfer of ownership to a shell licensing entity.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Neither Cerence Operating Company nor Wells Fargo Bank are identified as known patent assertion entities (NPEs) or patent trolls. Cerence is a product-shipping company, and Wells Fargo is a financial institution.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Correspondent information is not available from the provided data for any of the recorded assignments (Reel 064199/0731, Reel 067417/0303, Reel 069797/0422). Therefore, it cannot be determined if a repeat correspondent is present.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. The recorded history shows an initial assignment, followed by a security agreement and its subsequent release. These are not multiple consecutive transfers through chained LLCs within a short timeframe.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. As of the prior litigation summary (April 26, 2026), there is no known litigation involving US12236947. Thus, no transfers can be categorized as pre-litigation.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Cerence Operating Company is an active, publicly traded company, and there is no indication of bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — Not present. The patent remains with Cerence Operating Company, an operating company. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE for assertion on Cerence's behalf.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently held by Cerence Operating Company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
The patent US12236947 is currently owned by Cerence Operating Company, which is an active operating company developing and shipping products in the field of automotive AI that embody the patent's claims. The assignment records (Reel 064199/0731, Reel 067417/0303, Reel 069797/0422) reflect standard corporate intellectual property management and financing activities, not those typically associated with patent assertion entities.

For verification, please refer to the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ and search for patent number 12236947.