Patent 5948040

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.

Active provider: Google · gemini-2.5-flash

Ownership chain (2)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. 1997-02-06 · reel 008544/0831 · Assignment

    David M. DeLorme, T. Angus Ferguson, Keith A. GrayDELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

    Correspondent: · DELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY

    Original assignment from inventors to employer

  2. 2016-03-01 · recorded 2016-04-12 · reel 036980/0675 · Assignment

    DELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.GARMIN SWITZERLAND GMBH

    Correspondent: DANIEL K KIM · GARMIN INTERNATIONAL

    Acquisition

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

  • David M. DeLorme (DeLorme Publishing Co Inc)
  • Keith A. Gray (DeLorme Publishing Co Inc)
  • T. Angus Ferguson (DeLorme Publishing Co Inc)

Original assignee

DeLorme Publishing Co Inc. DeLorme Publishing Co Inc. was a cartographic and GIS software company known for products like Street Atlas USA. The company shipped products embodying the claims, particularly mapping software. DeLorme was acquired by Garmin International in 2016 and is now operating as a subsidiary.

Assignment timeline

  • 1997-02-06 (executed) / recorded 1997-02-06 — Reel 008544/0831

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: David M. DeLorme, T. Angus Ferguson, Keith A. Gray
    • Assignee: DELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
    • Correspondent: DELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
    • Context: Original assignment from inventors to employer.

  • 2016-03-01 (executed) / recorded 2016-04-12 — Reel 036980/0675

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: DELORME PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
    • Assignee: GARMIN SWITZERLAND GMBH
    • Correspondent: DANIEL K KIM, GARMIN INTERNATIONAL, INC., 1200 EAST 151ST STREET, OLATHE, KANSAS 66062
    • Context: Acquisition of DeLorme by Garmin.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 5948040
    1997 : Assigned to DeLorme Publishing Co Inc
    1999 : Issued
    2016 : Acquired by Garmin Switzerland GmbH

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The transfers are between operating companies (DeLorme to Garmin).
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Neither DeLorme Publishing Co Inc. nor Garmin Switzerland GmbH are identified as known NPEs on public lists.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. The correspondent changed between the initial inventor assignment and the acquisition by Garmin.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There is only one transfer between operating companies.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. No litigation has been identified for this patent.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. DeLorme was acquired, not dissolved or sold in bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence in the assignment records or provided context to suggest privateering.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to an operating company (Garmin).

Verdict

Operating-company assertion (current assignee ships products embodying the claims and is suing actual competitors)

The patent was originally assigned by the inventors to DeLorme Publishing Co Inc. [cite: Reel 008544/0831], an operating company that produced mapping software. Subsequently, it was assigned to Garmin Switzerland GmbH [cite: Reel 036980/0675] as part of Garmin's acquisition of DeLorme. Garmin is a known operating company that ships products embodying the claims, primarily in the navigation and GPS device market. No NPE signals were found in the assignment chain.

USPTO Assignment Center Search for US5948040

Generated 5/16/2026, 12:45:56 AM