Assignment history

Inventors

The sole named inventor is Dean Schumacher. Their employer at the time of filing is not determinable from the provided patent document. There are no unusual patterns, such as multiple inventors departing an original assignee, as only one inventor is listed and the patent is currently assigned to an individual.

Original assignee

The original assignee, as listed on the patent, is "Individual" (Dean Schumacher). The patent describes a "System and apparatus for sanitizing a door opening device or other point of contact". There is no information within the patent text or on its Google Patents page indicating that the individual, Dean Schumacher, manufactures or ships a product embodying the claims. Therefore, it is unclear if a product is shipped. The primary line of business is not applicable for an individual owner. The current status is that the individual remains the active owner of the patent.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Center for US patent 12296061, as of 2026-05-29, yielded no recorded assignments for this specific patent number. This indicates that the original assignee, Dean Schumacher (listed as "Individual"), remains the recorded owner of US12296061B2.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12296061
    2011 : Priority date from parent application
    2024 : Application filed by Individual
    2025 : Issued to Individual

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. There is no recorded transfer of this patent from an operating company to a shell entity. The patent is currently assigned to an "Individual".
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present as a recorded transfer to a known asserter. However, the patent family is noted to be involved in active litigation, including a US case filed in Utah District Court (case 2:24-cv-00589) and a PTAB PGR proceeding (PGR2026-00030). This suggests that the individual owner may be acting as an asserter.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. No assignment records are found for this patent, therefore no correspondent information is available to identify recurrence.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. No transfers are recorded for this patent.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. There are no recorded assignments of this specific patent that pre-date the noted litigation in the patent family.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings for the original assignee.
7. Privateering — Unclear. No transfer to an NPE is recorded, so privateering cannot be confirmed.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is not currently assigned to a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — moderate confidence. While there are no recorded assignments for US12296061B2 indicating a transfer to a shell entity or known asserter, the patent is owned by an "Individual" and its family is explicitly noted on Google Patents as being involved in active litigation (US case 2:24-cv-00589 and PTAB PGR2026-00030). The absence of an operating company producing products embodying the claims, combined with active assertion of the patent family, points towards an NPE model where the individual inventor is directly asserting the patent.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US12296061: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/