Assignment history

Inventors

• Benjamin Duval
• Alexandre Berzati
• Olivier Fourquin

All three inventors are listed on the patent application with an affiliation to the original assignee, Thales. The assignment records show they assigned their interests to Thales entities. There are no indications of unusual employment patterns, such as a mass departure after filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee of record is Thales DIS France SAS.

Thales is a large, publicly-traded French multinational corporation that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defense, transportation, and security markets. As a major provider of secure microelectronics, including smart cards and embedded secure elements for devices, Thales develops and ships products that would directly embody the patented technology for Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). Thales is a major operating company and is currently active.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment database and the patent's legal event history reveals the following transfers, all of which appear to be internal reorganizations or record clarifications within the Thales corporate family.

• 2023-03-06 (executed) / recorded 2023-07-28 — Reel 064414/0237

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: Benjamin Duval, Alexandre Berzati, Olivier Fourquin (Inventors)
  • Assignee: Thales DIS Design Services SAS
  • Correspondent: Information not available in provided source documents.
  • Context: Initial assignment of invention from the inventors to their employing Thales entity.

• 2021-06-29 (executed) / recorded 2023-12-13 — Reel 065853/0852

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: Thales DIS Design Services SAS
  • Assignee: Thales DIS France SA
  • Correspondent: Information not available in provided source documents.
  • Context: Internal transfer between two related Thales corporate entities as part of a reorganization. Note the execution date precedes the application filing date, suggesting it may cover future inventions.

• 2025-07-24 (executed) / recorded 2025-07-28 — Reel 071845/0858

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: Benjamin Duval, Alexandre Berzati, Olivier Fourquin (Inventors)
  • Assignee: Thales DIS France SAS
  • Correspondent: Information not available in provided source documents.
  • Context: A confirmatory assignment recorded shortly before the patent's issuance, likely to clean up the chain of title and explicitly confirm ownership with the specific original assignee entity.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12395359
    2020 : Priority application filed in Europe
    2021 : US application filed by Thales
    2023 : Inventors assign rights to Thales
         : Thales internal entity transfer
    2025 : Confirmatory assignment recorded
         : Patent Issued to Thales DIS France

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. All assignees (Thales DIS Design Services SAS, Thales DIS France SA, Thales DIS France SAS) are operating entities within the Thales Group, a major multinational technology company.

2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Thales is a well-known operating company and is not listed as an NPE or patent asserter by RPX, Unified Patents, or other tracking services.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Unclear. The correspondent information for the recorded assignments is not available in the provided source documentation.

4. Cascading transfers: Not present. The transfers are between related corporate entities for apparent organizational purposes, not a rapid chain of transfers between unrelated LLCs.

5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. There is no record of litigation involving this patent.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. The assignor, Thales, is a large, solvent operating company.

7. Privateering: Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a third-party NPE to be asserted on Thales's behalf. It remains within the Thales corporate family.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator like RPX or LOT Network. The patent is still held by its originating operating company.

Verdict

Insufficient data

The assignment history clearly shows the patent has remained within the Thales corporate family, a major operating company that develops and sells products in this technology area. This strongly indicates the absence of any NPE or patent troll activity.

However, based on the strict verdict categories provided, the data is insufficient to make a definitive selection. The patent is not being asserted, which rules out "Operating-company assertion" as defined. It has not been transferred to a formal defensive aggregator, which rules out "Defensive / non-asserting" as defined. As the evidence does not meet the specific criteria for any of the other categories, this verdict is the most accurate based on the available information and rigid definitions.

Verification Link: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US 12395359