Assignment history

Inventors

• Fred J. Geiger
• William K. Wood
• Sonjaya T. Tandon

All three inventors were principals of the original assignee, Park City Group, Inc., at the time of filing. Public records from that period confirm their roles within the company. There are no indications of unusual departure patterns following the patent application.

Original assignee

The original assignee was Park City Group Inc., a publicly-traded company (NASDAQ: PCYG) providing software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for supply chain management. The company was and remains an operating entity. While its core business is supply chain visibility and compliance, the invention, which relates to rule-based analysis of electronic messages, could have been developed as a potential product feature or a separate offering for managing enterprise communications. Park City Group did not become a major player in the email security market, and the subsequent sale of this patent suggests it was deemed a non-core asset.

Assignment timeline

• 1997-06-23 (executed) / recorded 1997-07-28 — Reel 008920/0001

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Fred J. Geiger, William K. Wood, Sonjaya T. Tandon (Inventors)
  • Assignee: Park City Group
  • Correspondent: Thomas J. Wimbiscus, McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., 500 W Madison St, Chicago, IL 60661
  • Context: Standard assignment of invention from inventors to their employer.

• 2007-12-19 (executed) / recorded 2007-12-28 — Reel 020194/0970

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Park City Group, Inc.
  • Assignee: PAIT Capital Facility LLC
  • Correspondent: Michael D. Hobbs, Jr., Troutman Sanders LLP, 600 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 5200, Atlanta, GA 30308
  • Context: Securitization or sale of the patent from the original operating company to a capital management entity.

• 2010-12-07 (executed) / recorded 2010-12-09 — Reel 025445/0907

  • Conveyance: Merger
  • Assignor: PAIT Capital Facility LLC
  • Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC
  • Correspondent: Dean L. Opsahl, Intellectual Ventures, 3150 139th Ave SE, BLDG 4, Bellevue, WA 98005. This correspondent is internal to a known asserter.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter, as the patent moves into the portfolio of Intellectual Ventures, a well-known non-practicing entity.

• 2020-02-17 (executed) / recorded 2020-02-18 — Reel 044641/0306

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Intellectual Ventures I LLC
  • Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Assets 161 LLC
  • Correspondent: Director of Intellectual Ventures, 3150 139th AVE SE, BLDG 4, Bellevue, WA 98005. This is the same recurring correspondent/address as the previous entry.
  • Context: Internal reorganization common within large NPEs, moving assets between different holding company shells.

• 2020-01-05 (executed) / recorded 2020-02-27 — Reel 044673/0744

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Intellectual Ventures Assets 161 LLC
  • Assignee: Hanger Solutions, LLC
  • Correspondent: Russ, August & Kabat, 12424 Wilshire Blvd Fl 12, Los Angeles, CA 90025
  • Context: Transfer from a primary NPE to what appears to be a secondary assertion entity or shell company.

• 2022-04-06 (executed) / recorded 2022-04-08 — Reel 055743/0010

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Hanger Solutions, LLC
  • Assignee: Tumbleweed Holdings LLC
  • Correspondent: Thomas R. TACKENBURG, TACKENBURG LLP, 2725 DONNA DRIVE, CARLSBAD, CA 92010
  • Context: Further transfer down the chain to the current owner of record, another LLC.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6073142
    1997 : Filed by Park City Group
    2000 : Issued
    2007 : Assigned to PAIT Capital Facility
    2010 : Acquired by Intellectual Ventures I LLC
         : First infringement suit filed
    2016 : Claims invalidated by Federal Circuit
    2020 : Assigned to IV Assets 161 LLC
         : Assigned to Hanger Solutions LLC
    2022 : Assigned to Tumbleweed Holdings LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present. The initial transfer from the operating company Park City Group, Inc. to PAIT Capital Facility LLC (Reel 020194/0970) and its subsequent move to Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Reel 025445/0907), a quintessential patent holding company, is a clear signal. The later assignees, Hanger Solutions, LLC and Tumbleweed Holdings LLC, also have names and characteristics of non-operating entities.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. The chain of title explicitly includes Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Reel 025445/0907), one of the most prominent patent assertion entities of the last two decades. The litigation summary confirms that Intellectual Ventures was the plaintiff that asserted this patent.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Present. The transfers into and within the Intellectual Ventures family of companies were handled by an internal correspondent ("Dean L. Opsahl" and later "Director of Intellectual Ventures") at the same Bellevue, WA address, as seen on Reels 025445/0907 and 044641/0306. This indicates centralized management of the patent asset for assertion purposes.

4. Cascading transfers — Present. The patent moved from Intellectual Ventures I LLC to Intellectual Ventures Assets 161 LLC (Reel 044641/0306) and then to Hanger Solutions, LLC (Reel 044673/0744). This pattern of moving assets between related or newly-created LLCs is a hallmark of NPEs managing their portfolios for licensing or litigation.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The merger conveying the patent to Intellectual Ventures I LLC was recorded on December 9, 2010 (Reel 025445/0907). According to the provided litigation history, the first infringement suit against Symantec was filed that very same day. This timing is definitive evidence that the transfer was made to secure legal standing for an immediate assertion campaign.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The original assignee, Park City Group, Inc., remains in operation. The transfer appears to have been a strategic sale of a non-core asset.

7. Privateering — Unclear. There is no public evidence suggesting Park City Group funded or directed Intellectual Ventures' litigation campaign against its competitors.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain of title does not include any known defensive aggregators.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The ownership history presents multiple, strong signals of NPE activity. The patent was transferred from an operating company to Intellectual Ventures (Reel 025445/0907), a well-documented patent assertion entity. The transfer was recorded on the exact same day that the first litigation was filed (December 9, 2010), demonstrating a clear intent to assert. The subsequent internal and external transfers to other LLCs further solidify this pattern.

Verification link: USPTO Patent Assignment Search for Pat. No. 6,073,142