Patent 12274481

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. ? · recorded 2024-10-08 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    Robert D. Santrock; Paul Dayton; Daniel J. Hatch; W. Bret Smith; F. Barry Bays; Carlos Eduardo Gil; Sean F. Scanlan; Joe W. Ferguson; John T. TreaceTREACE MEDICAL CONCEPTS, INC.

    internal reorg

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

  • Robert D. Santrock (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • Paul Dayton (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • Daniel J. Hatch (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • W. Bret Smith (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • F. Barry Bays (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • Carlos Eduardo Gil (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • Sean F. Scanlan (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • Joe W. Ferguson (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)
  • John T. Treace (Treace Medical Concepts Inc)

Original assignee

The original assignee is Treace Medical Concepts Inc. They ship products embodying the claims, specifically surgical systems and instruments for the foot and ankle, including those for bunion correction, as described in the patent. Their primary line of business is orthopedic medical devices. Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

I performed a search on the USPTO Assignment Center for US patent 12274481. As of May 28, 2026, there are no recorded assignments for US Patent 12274481 beyond the original assignment to Treace Medical Concepts Inc. The patent information on Google Patents also indicates "Assigned to Treace Medical Concepts, Inc." on 2024-10-08 with a conveyance type of "ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST". This suggests that the initial assignment from the inventors to Treace Medical Concepts Inc. was recorded, but no subsequent transfers have been publicly filed with the USPTO.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12274481
    2015 : Priority date
    2024 : Filed by Treace Medical Concepts Inc
    2024 : Assigned to Treace Medical Concepts Inc
    2025 : Issued
    2025 : US case filed in Delaware District Court
    2026 : PTAB case PGR2026-00022 filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The current assignee, Treace Medical Concepts Inc., is an operating company that manufactures and sells medical devices, which is inconsistent with a shell entity.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is not identified as a known NPE on public lists.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. No subsequent assignments are recorded, so there is no chain to observe for repeat correspondents.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. No subsequent assignments are recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The patent was issued in April 2025 and a US case was filed in the Delaware District Court in 2025. While the litigation started relatively soon after issuance, there are no recorded assignments immediately preceding the litigation to suggest a pre-litigation transfer to an asserting entity distinct from the original assignee.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication that Treace Medical Concepts Inc. has filed for bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — unclear. There is no publicly available information in SEC filings or from third-party coverage to suggest that Treace Medical Concepts Inc. has transferred this patent to an NPE to assert on their behalf.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to an operating company and there are active litigations, which is contrary to being held by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

This verdict is based on the fact that the patent remains with its original assignee, Treace Medical Concepts Inc., which is an operating company that develops and sells products in the medical device field. The ongoing litigation, including the US case filed in the Delaware District Court in 2025, suggests that Treace Medical Concepts Inc. is asserting its patent rights, likely against competitors. The lack of any recorded assignments to shell entities or known NPEs further supports this conclusion.

For verification, see the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ and search for patent number 12274481.

Generated 5/28/2026, 6:48:02 AM