Patent 12268397

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.

2024-07-02 · reel 063548/0114 · Assignment of Assignors Interest
SMITH, W. BRET; SCANLAN, SEAN F.; GIL, CARLOS EDUARDO; SANTROCK, ROBERT D.; HATCH, DANIEL J.; TREACE, JOHN T.; BAYS, F. BARRY; FERGUSON, JOE WILLIAM; DAYTON, PAUL TREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS, INC.
Correspondent: BRENT JOHNSON · TREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS
initial inventor assignment

Assignment history

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Inventors

Paul Dayton: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
Robert D. Santrock: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
Daniel J. Hatch: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
W. Bret Smith: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
Carlos Eduardo Gil: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
Sean F. Scanlan: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
Joe William Ferguson: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
F. Barry Bays: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.
John T. Treace: Employed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc. at the time of filing.

It is common for inventors to be employees of the original assignee, and the assignment record confirms that all named inventors assigned their interest to Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. [cite: US12268397B2].

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent US12268397 is Treace Medical Concepts Inc. [cite: US12268397B2].

Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is a commercial-stage orthopaedic medical device company that designs, manufactures, and markets foot and ankle surgical devices and biologics. Their primary product is the Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion Correction® System, which is a combination of instruments, implants, and surgical methods. They also offer other products, including the Adductoplasty® Midfoot Correction System, SpeedMTP™ Rapid Compression Implant, Nanoplasty™ 3D Minimally Invasive Bunion Correction System, Percuplasty™ Percutaneous 3D Bunion Correction System, and various plating systems and compression screws.

The company actively ships products embodying the claims, particularly those related to bone cutting guides and fixation systems for bunion and midfoot deformities. Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is currently operating and is a publicly held company, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "TMCI."

Assignment timeline

2024-07-02 (executed) / recorded 2024-07-02 — Reel 063548/0114
- Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
- Assignor: SMITH, W. BRET; SCANLAN, SEAN F.; GIL, CARLOS EDUARDO; SANTROCK, ROBERT D.; HATCH, DANIEL J.; TREACE, JOHN T.; BAYS, F. BARRY; FERGUSON, JOE WILLIAM; DAYTON, PAUL
- Assignee: TREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS, INC.
- Correspondent: BRENT JOHNSON, TREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS, INC., 203 Fort Wade Rd., Suite 150, Ponte Vedra, FL 32081.
- Context: Inventors assigned their rights to the original operating company, Treace Medical Concepts, Inc.

No other assignment records for US12268397 or its application number US18/645,205 were found on the USPTO Assignment Center as of 2026-05-27. This indicates that Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. remains the owner of record.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12268397
    2015 : Priority date
    2024 : Filed by Treace Medical Concepts
         : Inventors assign to Treace Medical
    2025 : Issued to Treace Medical Concepts
         : District Court case filed
    2026 : PTAB case filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The patent remains with the original operating company, Treace Medical Concepts, Inc., which is a publicly traded medical device company.
Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is an operating company, not a known patent asserter (NPE).
Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Only one assignment from the inventors to the original assignee is recorded. The correspondent, BRENT JOHNSON, is in-house counsel for Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. (Reel 063548/0114). There is no pattern of recurrence within this patent's chain.
Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The assignment from the inventors to Treace Medical Concepts Inc. occurred on 2024-07-02, which is before the patent issued (2025-04-08) and before the earliest identified litigation (Delaware District Court Case 1:25-cv-00592, filed in 2025). This is a standard initial assignment and not specifically pre-litigation to set up assertion.
Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is an active, publicly traded company.
Privateering — Not present. The patent remains with the operating company.
Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is held by an operating company.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent US12268397 is currently assigned to Treace Medical Concepts Inc., an active operating company that develops and sells medical devices relevant to the patent's claims. There is only one recorded assignment, which is the standard initial transfer from the inventors to the company (Reel 063548/0114, executed and recorded 2024-07-02). The existing litigation indicates assertion by the operating company, likely against competitors, rather than an NPE.

Verify on USPTO Assignment Center

Generated 5/27/2026, 6:48:57 PM