Patent 12252506

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.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Marie Migaud (The Queen's University of Belfast)
  • Philip Redpath (The Queen's University of Belfast)
  • Kerri Crossey (The Queen's University of Belfast)
  • Mark Doherty (The Queen's University of Belfast)

Original assignee

The original assignee, The Queen's University of Belfast, is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Its primary line of business is higher education and research. The university is currently operating. While the university conducts extensive research, it does not directly ship a product embodying the claims in the commercial sense. However, its commercial arm, QUBIS Ltd, has created over 100 spin-out companies.

Assignment timeline

  • 2024-07-25 (executed) / recorded 2024-07-25 — Reel 063683/0950
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: Queens University of Belfast
    • Assignee: THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
    • Correspondent: Not specified in available data.
    • Context: Internal reorganization or formal name clarification.
  • 2025-12-22 (executed) / recorded 2025-12-22 — Reel 065757/0270
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
    • Assignee: Niagen Bioscience, Inc.
    • Correspondent: GREGORY D. ALLEN, PROCOPIO CORY HARGREAVES AND SAVITCH LLP, 525 B STREET, SUITE 2200, SAN DIEGO, CA 92101. This correspondent may recur in other tracked patents related to Niagen Bioscience, Inc.
    • Context: Acquisition of patent portfolio.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12252506
    2023 : Application filed by Queens University of Belfast
    2024 : Assigned to THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
    2025 : Issued
         : Assigned to Niagen Bioscience Inc

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The initial transfer was a name clarification within the university (063683/0950). The subsequent transfer to Niagen Bioscience, Inc. is to an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Niagen Bioscience, Inc., formerly ChromaDex, is a public bioscience company that markets and sells products related to nicotinamide riboside.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. GREGORY D. ALLEN of PROCOPIO CORY HARGREAVES AND SAVITCH LLP is listed as the correspondent for the 2025-12-22 assignment (065757/0270). There is no prior correspondent listed for the 2024-07-25 assignment, so recurrence within this chain cannot be confirmed.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two assignments recorded within a short timeframe, neither of which appears to be to a shell entity.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. No litigation has been identified for this patent as of April 30, 2026.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The Queen's University of Belfast is an active university.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While Niagen Bioscience, Inc. stated its intent to enforce its patent rights against infringers, there is no direct evidence to suggest a privateering arrangement where the Queen's University of Belfast is funding the litigation for assertion against competitors.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent was assigned to Niagen Bioscience, Inc., an operating company.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
The patent was transferred from The Queen's University of Belfast to Niagen Bioscience, Inc. (Reel 065757/0270, recorded 2025-12-22), which is an operating company actively selling products (Tru Niagen, Niagen Plus) embodying the patented technology. Niagen Bioscience has also publicly stated its intent to enforce its patent rights.

For verification, see the USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 9:07:24 PM