Assignment history

Inventors

• Donald J. Hejna, Jr.

The patent application was filed by a single inventor, who was also the original owner. No employer is listed on the patent, and there is no indication of any unusual departure or portfolio sale pattern at the time of filing.

Original assignee

The patent was assigned to the inventor, Donald J. Hejna, Jr., upon issuance. As an individual inventor, there is no evidence that a product embodying the claims was ever shipped. The patent was held by the inventor for over 12 years before its first and only recorded assignment.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Center reveals a single recorded assignment for this patent.

• 2013-11-20 (executed) / recorded 2013-12-02 — Reel 031379/0420
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Donald J. Hejna, Jr.
  • Assignee: EDEKKA LLC
  • Correspondent: Daniel A. Garteiser, Garteiser, Honeywell & Lohmeyer, New York, NY
  • Context: This assignment represents a transfer from the original inventor to the entity that would launch a widespread litigation campaign asserting the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6266674
    1992 : Application filed by Donald Hejna Jr
    2001 : Patent issued
    2013 : Assigned to EDEKKA LLC
         : First infringement suits filed
    2015 : Patent declared invalid

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Present.
   The patent was transferred from its inventor to EDEKKA LLC (Reel 031379/0420). EDEKKA LLC is a Texas limited liability company that has no known products and was formed for the purpose of licensing and litigation, fitting the pattern of a shell entity.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Present.
   The assignee, EDEKKA LLC (Reel 031379/0420), is a widely recognized patent assertion entity (NPE). As detailed in the litigation summary, eDekka filed over 250 lawsuits asserting this patent between 2013 and 2015.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not Present.
   As there is only one assignment in the chain, there is no recurrence. However, the correspondent of record, Daniel A. Garteiser, has been associated with other patent assertion campaigns.

4. Cascading transfers — Not Present.
   The record shows only a single transfer from the inventor to the asserting entity.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present.
   The assignment from Donald J. Hejna, Jr. to EDEKKA LLC was executed on November 20, 2013 (Reel 031379/0420). The first infringement lawsuits, such as eDekka LLC v. Sally Beauty Supply LLC, were filed on the exact same day, November 20, 2013. This indicates the transfer was executed immediately before or concurrently with the launch of the litigation campaign to establish standing.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not Present.
   There is no evidence of bankruptcy proceedings.

7. Privateering — Not Present.
   The original assignor was an individual inventor, not an operating company.

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

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The verdict is driven by multiple, strong signals. The patent was transferred from the inventor to EDEKKA LLC, a known non-practicing entity, on the very same day that EDEKKA LLC began a massive litigation campaign involving over 250 defendants (Reel 031379/0420, executed 2013-11-20). This combination of a transfer to a known asserter and the timing of that transfer immediately preceding litigation provides high-confidence evidence of a classic NPE assertion model.

A link to the USPTO Assignment Center search results for this patent is available for verification: https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html#/patent/search/result?patentNumber=6266674