Patent 5704012

Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

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Assignment history

Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.

✓ Generated

Inventors

The sole inventor listed for US Patent 5704012 is Joseph Phillip Bigus. He was an employee of International Business Machines Corp. at the time of filing, as indicated by the original assignee. No unusual patterns, such as the inventor departing the original assignee around the filing date, are determinable from the provided patent text.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is International Business Machines Corp.

IBM is a multinational technology and consulting company. At the time of the patent's filing and issuance, IBM was a major manufacturer and vendor of computer hardware (e.g., the IBM Application System/400 midrange computer mentioned in the patent), software (including operating systems), and services. The patent describes an adaptive resource allocation system using neural networks as part of a computer's operating system, indicating that IBM likely shipped products embodying the claims as part of its computer systems and operating system offerings.

IBM's current status is operating.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database (https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/) for US Patent 5704012 yielded no recorded assignments. This indicates that, according to USPTO records, the patent has remained with its original assignee, International Business Machines Corp., since its issuance.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 5704012
    1995 : Filed by IBM
    1997 : Issued to IBM
    2002 : Lapsed for fee non-payment
    2014 : Anticipated expiration

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The patent remains with International Business Machines Corp., an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. The patent remains with International Business Machines Corp.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. There are no recorded assignments to create a chain.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are no recorded assignments.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There are no recorded assignments and no known litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. International Business Machines Corp. has not undergone bankruptcy proceedings that would typically lead to such a sale.
  7. Privateering — not present. The patent remains with International Business Machines Corp.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent has not been acquired by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data.
There are no recorded assignments for US Patent 5704012 in the USPTO assignment database, indicating that the patent has remained with its original assignee, International Business Machines Corp., since its issuance. Therefore, there is no assignment chain to analyze for NPE/troll-pattern signals. The patent is also expired due to maintenance fee non-payment as of January 30, 2002.

USPTO Patent Assignment Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 6/2/2026, 12:01:51 AM