Patent 6537227

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. 2001-02-19 · recorded 2001-03-02 · reel 011586/0854 · ASSIGNMENT

    KINNUNEN, HANNU; NISSILA, SEPPOPOLAR ELECTRO OY

    Original assignment from inventors to operating company prior to filing

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

  • Hannu Kinnunen (Polar Electro Oy)
  • Seppo Nissilä (Polar Electro Oy)

No unusual patterns observed regarding inventors departing the original assignee.

Original assignee

Polar Electro Oy is the original assignee. Polar Electro Oy is a Finnish company known for manufacturing heart rate monitors and other wearables for sports and fitness. They ship products embodying the claims. The company is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

  • 2001-02-19 (executed) / recorded 2001-03-02 — Reel 011586/0854
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
    • Assignor: KINNUNEN, HANNU; NISSILA, SEPPO
    • Assignee: POLAR ELECTRO OY
    • Correspondent: NOT LISTED
    • Context: Original assignment from inventors to operating company prior to filing.

The USPTO Assignment Center search for US6537227 shows only one record: the initial assignment from the inventors to Polar Electro Oy (Reel 011586/0854). This indicates that, according to public assignment records, Polar Electro Oy remains the owner of the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6537227
    2001 : Assigned to Polar Electro Oy
    2001 : Patent filed
    2003 : Patent issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to Polar Electro Oy, an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Polar Electro Oy is an operating company, not a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded, and the correspondent is not listed.
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The initial assignment occurred before the patent was even filed. The recorded litigation dates are significantly later than the assignment date.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication that Polar Electro Oy has filed for bankruptcy.
  7. Privateering — Unclear. While Polar Electro Oy is involved in litigation, there is no public record indicating a transfer to an NPE for assertion on their behalf. They are the direct plaintiff in the noted lawsuits.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is not currently assigned to a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The only recorded assignment shows the patent transferred from the inventors to Polar Electro Oy (Reel 011586/0854), an established operating company that produces products related to heart rate monitoring. Polar Electro Oy is also the direct plaintiff in the noted litigation, indicating they are asserting the patent on their own behalf as an operating company.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html?cn=US6537227B2

Generated 5/16/2026, 12:04:03 AM