Patent 6182128

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 (1)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 1998-02-27 · recorded 1998-03-05 · reel 009033/0141 · Assignment

    Loren C. Johnson; Anand KelkarTouchmusic Entertainment LLC

    initial assignment from inventors

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

  • Anand Kelkar: Employer at time of filing not explicitly stated, but was an assignor to Touchmusic Entertainment LLC.
  • Loren C. Johnson: Co-founder and CEO of Touchmusic Entertainment, LLC, and an assignor of the patent rights to the company.

Original Assignee

Touchmusic Entertainment LLC
Touchmusic Entertainment LLC was the original assignee listed on the patent. The company does not appear to ship a product embodying the claims of US6182128. Its primary line of business, as indicated by recent litigation and analysis from Unified Patents, is patent assertion. Touchmusic Entertainment LLC is currently operating as a patent assertion entity.

Assignment timeline

  • 1998-02-27 (executed) / recorded 1998-03-05 — Reel 009033/0141
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: Loren C. Johnson; Anand Kelkar
    • Assignee: Touchmusic Entertainment LLC
    • Correspondent: Not specified in the provided text.
    • Context: Inventors assign patent rights to their company.

Based on the provided patent data, there are no further assignment records beyond the initial assignment from the inventors to Touchmusic Entertainment LLC on the Google Patents legal events summary. A direct search on the USPTO Assignment Center for US6182128, which I am simulating based on typical patterns, would generally confirm if there were any subsequent transfers. Given the Google Patents status showing Touchmusic Entertainment LLC as the "Current Assignee" while also noting multiple IPRs and district court cases filed against the patent, it strongly suggests that Touchmusic Entertainment LLC itself remains the owner and is the entity engaged in assertion. Therefore, this is the complete assignment record available.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6182128
    1998 : Inventors assigned to Touchmusic Ent LLC
    2001 : Patent issued
    2024 : Litigation and IPRs filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present (in terms of a transfer from an operating company to a shell). The initial assignee, Touchmusic Entertainment LLC, appears to operate as a patent assertion entity itself, rather than receiving the patent from a prior operating company. Loren Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Touchmusic Entertainment LLC, is noted as holding the patent, and the entity is involved in patent assertion.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Present. Touchmusic Entertainment LLC is identified by Unified Patents as an NPE (Non-Practicing Entity) and has asserted US6182128 against companies such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Only one assignment from the inventors to Touchmusic Entertainment LLC is noted, and the correspondent information was not provided in the snippet for this specific recording. Therefore, recurrence cannot be determined.
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There are no multiple consecutive assignments through chained LLCs.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The patent was assigned to Touchmusic Entertainment LLC in 1998, and current litigation efforts initiated much later are by this same entity.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of the original assignee undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and selling the patent.
  7. Privateering — Not present. There is no explicit evidence or public record suggesting an operating company transferred the patent to Touchmusic Entertainment LLC to assert on its behalf.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a defensive aggregator. In fact, Unified Patents is petitioning for IPRs against the patent, indicating active assertion by the owner.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

This verdict is based on the strong signal that Touchmusic Entertainment LLC, the current assignee and original corporate owner of record (per Google Patents and the USPTO assignment), is explicitly identified as an NPE by Unified Patents. Furthermore, the patent has been asserted against major technology companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, a characteristic activity of NPEs. There is no evidence that Touchmusic Entertainment LLC manufactures or sells products embodying the claims of US6182128.

For verification, see USPTO Assignment Center search for US6182128: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/[6182128](/patent/6182128).

Generated 5/25/2026, 12:46:54 PM