Assignment history

Inventors

• Prateek Kathpal (Cerence Operating Co.)
• Brian Arthur Rubin (Cerence Operating Co.)

Original assignee

Cerence Operating Co. is the original assignee named on the issued patent. Cerence's primary line of business is providing AI-powered solutions for connected vehicles, including speech recognition, natural language understanding, and voice biometrics. They ship products embodying the claims, such as the CERENCE Drive 2.0 framework, which provides ASR and NLU services to vehicles. Cerence Operating Co. is an active, operating company.

Assignment timeline

• 2022-01-04 (executed) / recorded 2022-01-04 — Reel 058541/0717

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Kathpal, Prateek; Rubin, Brian Arthur
  • Assignee: Cerence Operating Company, Massachusetts
  • Correspondent: Matthew J. Van Eman, Cerence Inc., 15 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803.
  • Context: Internal transfer from inventors to operating company.

• 2024-04-12 (executed) / recorded 2024-04-15 — Reel 067417/0303

  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Cerence Operating Company
  • Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as Collateral Agent, North Carolina
  • Correspondent: Matthew J. Van Eman, Cerence Inc., 15 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803. This correspondent also appears on the 2022-01-04 assignment.
  • Context: Collateral for a financing agreement.

• 2024-12-31 (executed) / recorded 2025-01-02 — Reel 069797/0422

  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: Wells Fargo Bank, National Association
  • Assignee: Cerence Operating Company, Massachusetts
  • Correspondent: Matthew J. Van Eman, Cerence Inc., 15 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803. This correspondent also appears on the 2022-01-04 and 2024-04-15 assignments.
  • Context: Release of security interest.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12406663
    2021 : Filed by Cerence Operating Co.
    2022 : Assigned from inventors to Cerence
    2024 : Security agreement to Wells Fargo Bank
         : Security agreement released
    2025 : Patent Issued
    2026 : Litigation against Amazon filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The patent has consistently been held by Cerence Operating Company, an active operating company, or temporarily by Wells Fargo as a collateral agent.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Cerence Operating Company is not identified on public NPE lists as of the current date.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Matthew J. Van Eman of Cerence Inc. is listed as the correspondent on all three recorded assignments (Reel 058541/0717, Reel 067417/0303, and Reel 069797/0422).
4. Cascading transfers — not present. The recorded transfers are an initial assignment from inventors, followed by a security interest and its subsequent release, all involving the same operating company.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The last recorded transfer (release of security interest) was on 2025-01-02, while the litigation against Amazon was filed on 2026-05-04. This is outside the 6-month window for a "pre-litigation transfer" signal.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Cerence Operating Company is an active operating company, not in bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. While Cerence is an operating company, the nature of its assertion against Amazon, a competitor in voice assistant technology, could be perceived as defensive or competitive. However, without further information (e.g., SEC filings detailing licensing agreements or public statements about assertion strategy), it's not definitively a privateering arrangement.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently held by Cerence Operating Company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
Cerence Operating Company, the original and current assignee of US Patent 12,406,663, is an active company that develops and markets products directly embodying the claims, such as vehicle voice assistants. The ongoing litigation against Amazon.com, Inc. et al. (Case Number: 2:26-cv-00373) indicates assertion by an operating company against a competitor. The recorded assignments show internal transfers and a security interest, all consistent with a standard operating company's patent management practices, with the same correspondent consistently handling the recordings.