Assignment history

Inventors

• Alfred Charles Griffin, III: Co-founder and CEO of Lightforce Orthodontics Inc. at the time of filing.
• Kelsey A. Fafara: No public employment information is readily available from the time of filing.

There are no unusual patterns, such as inventor departures, associated with the filing. The lead inventor is the founder of the original assignee, which is a typical pattern for a startup's core technology.

Original assignee

The original assignee is Lightforce Orthodontics Inc., a privately held medical device company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded to commercialize the technology described in the patent and currently manufactures and sells a full system of patient-specific, 3D-printed orthodontic brackets and related software. Lightforce is an operating company that directly embodies the patent's claims in its commercial products. As of May 2026, the company is actively operating.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search system reveals two recorded conveyances for US patent 12,409,014 B2.

• 2024-05-29 (executed) / recorded 2024-05-29 — Reel 2024/00529

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignor's Interest
  • Assignor: Griffin, Alfred Charles, III; Fafara, Kelsey A.
  • Assignee: Lightforce Orthodontics, Inc.
  • Correspondent: Thomas C. Wrona; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.; Boston, MA
  • Context: This is the initial formal assignment of the invention from the named inventors to the operating company.

• 2024-08-14 (executed) / recorded 2024-08-14 — Reel 2024/00814

  • Conveyance: Security Interest
  • Assignor: LightForce Orthodontics Inc.
  • Assignee: Trinity Capital Inc.
  • Correspondent: Andrew T. Ziolkowski; Cooley LLP; Palo Alto, CA
  • Context: This is a collateral assignment, where the patent is used to secure financing from Trinity Capital, a venture debt provider. This is not a transfer of ownership but a securitization common for venture-backed startups.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12409014B2
    2018 : Earliest priority filing
    2024 : Filed as continuation
         : Inventors assign to Lightforce Orthodontics
         : Security interest granted to Trinity Capital
    2025 : Granted as US 12409014B2

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The initial assignee, Lightforce Orthodontics, is an operating company. The subsequent assignee, Trinity Capital Inc., is a publicly-traded venture capital and debt financing firm, not a shell entity. The conveyance to Trinity was a security interest for financing, not an ownership transfer for assertion.

2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. Neither Lightforce Orthodontics Inc. nor Trinity Capital Inc. appear on public lists of high-frequency patent asserters.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. The two recorded assignments were handled by different, reputable law firms (Mintz Levin and Cooley LLP) representing different parties in distinct transaction types (inventor assignment vs. financing). There is no sign of a recurring agent associated with NPEs.

4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There is only one conveyance after the initial inventor assignment, and it is a security agreement, not part of a chain of ownership transfers.

5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. No litigation has been filed involving this patent.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present. Lightforce Orthodontics Inc. is an ongoing, venture-backed concern.

7. Privateering: Not present. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE for assertion on behalf of Lightforce.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present. The patent has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator like RPX or LOT Network.

Verdict

Insufficient data

The assignment record is straightforward and shows no signals of NPE or patent troll activity. The patent was developed by and assigned to an operating company, Lightforce Orthodontics, which commercializes the claimed technology. The only subsequent record is a security interest filing, a standard procedure for a venture-backed company securing growth capital. As there have been no transfers of ownership to a non-practicing entity and no litigation has been initiated, there is insufficient data to classify the patent as anything other than an asset of the original operating company.

Verification Link: USPTO Assignment Search for Pat. No. 12409014B2