Assignment history

Inventors

• Paul Yurt: No employer at the time of filing is determinable from the patent text.
• H. Lee Browne: No employer at the time of filing is determinable from the patent text, although he is later identified as doing business as Greenwich Information Technologies.

There are no unusual patterns noted regarding the inventors' employment or departure from an original assignee, as the patent was initially assigned to an individual.

Original assignee

The patent was originally assigned to an individual, H. Lee D/B/A Greenwich Information Technologies. This appears to be a sole proprietorship established by one of the inventors, H. Lee Browne. The patent describes a comprehensive system for audio/video distribution, but there is no public record indicating that Greenwich Information Technologies shipped a commercial product embodying the claims. The entity appears to have been primarily a holding entity for the intellectual property, which was later converted to an LLC and then to a corporation before being acquired.

Assignment timeline

• 1992-01-31 (executed) / recorded 1992-02-06 — Reel 005991/0088

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Paul Yurt; H. Lee Browne
  • Assignee: H. Lee Browne D/B/A Greenwich Information Technologies
  • Correspondent: H. Lee Browne, Greenwich, CT
  • Context: The inventors formally consolidate the patent's ownership under one inventor's sole proprietorship.

• 2002-02-11 (executed) / recorded 2002-02-12 — Reel 012476/0155

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: H. Lee Browne, doing business as Greenwich Information Technologies
  • Assignee: Greenwich Information Technologies, LLC
  • Correspondent: H. Lee Browne, Greenwich Information Technologies, LLC, Cos Cob, CT
  • Context: An internal reorganization converting the ownership from a sole proprietorship to a Limited Liability Company.

• 2002-08-15 (executed) / recorded 2002-08-15 — Reel 013063/0651

  • Conveyance: Other (Conversion from LLC to Corporation)
  • Assignor: Greenwich Information Technologies LLC
  • Assignee: Acacia Media Technologies Corporation
  • Correspondent: Paul A. Ragusa, Baker Botts LLP, New York, NY
  • Context: A corporate conversion that effectively transfers the patent to Acacia Media Technologies, a subsidiary of a known patent assertion entity.

Note: The Google Patents legal events list an anomalous assignment on 2004-07-24 from "H. LEE BROWNE, DOING BUSINESS AS GREENWICH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES" to "GREENWICH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES, LLC". A search of the USPTO Assignment database does not show a corresponding record with that date. The record likely refers to a confirmatory or nunc pro tunc assignment recorded to clean up the chain of title prior to litigation and does not represent a new transfer of ownership.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 5132992
    1991 : Filed by inventors Yurt and Browne
    1992 : Issued
         : Assigned to H Lee Browne dba Greenwich IT
    2002 : Reassigned to Greenwich Information Tech LLC
         : Converted to Acacia Media Technologies Corp
    2004 : First infringement suits filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The initial transfers from an individual inventor to a d/b/a and then to an LLC (Reels 005991/0088 and 012476/0155) are followed by a transfer to "Acacia Media Technologies Corporation" (Reel 013063/0651). Acacia Media Technologies is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, an entity with a well-documented business model of licensing and litigating patents rather than producing products.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. The final assignee of record, Acacia Media Technologies Corporation (Reel 013063/0651), is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, which is listed by name as a known asserter by multiple industry sources, including RPX and Unified Patents. The extensive litigation history of this patent, beginning shortly after Acacia's acquisition, confirms its use for assertion.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. The correspondents change with each major transfer. H. Lee Browne handles the initial recordings, and Baker Botts LLP handles the final conversion/transfer to Acacia. While not a signal here, the appearance of a major law firm like Baker Botts on the final transfer into an assertion entity is common.

4. Cascading transfers — Present. The patent underwent two transfers in 2002 (Reel 012476/0155 recorded in Feb 2002 and Reel 013063/0651 recorded in Aug 2002), moving from a sole proprietorship to an LLC and then to Acacia Media Technologies Corp in approximately six months. This rapid succession of transfers reorganized the asset into a corporate vehicle suitable for a large-scale assertion campaign.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The final transfer placing the patent under the ownership of Acacia Media Technologies Corporation was recorded on August 15, 2002 (Reel 013063/0651). The first documented infringement lawsuits naming this patent were filed in 2004. This transfer occurred well within a typical window for preparing an assertion campaign.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The patent was developed and transferred by the original inventors; there is no evidence of bankruptcy proceedings.

7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence that an operating company transferred the patent to Acacia to assert on its behalf. The patent originated with individual inventors.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain of title does not include any known defensive aggregators. The patent was used for active assertion.

Verdict

• NPE — high confidence

The assignment chain for US patent 5132992 shows multiple strong signals of NPE activity. The patent was transferred through a series of entities, culminating in its 2002 acquisition by Acacia Media Technologies Corporation (Reel 013063/0651), a subsidiary of the well-known patent assertion entity Acacia Research Corporation. This transfer, occurring less than two years before the first of many infringement lawsuits were filed, combined with the rapid cascading transfers in 2002, demonstrates a clear pattern of acquiring a patent for the primary purpose of litigation and licensing.

Verify at: USPTO Patent Assignment Search (search for patent number 5132992)