Patent 6795918

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.

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Ownership chain (1)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2015-01-10 · recorded 2015-01-22 · reel 034783/0463 · Assignment

    STEVEN T. TROLANWETRO LAN LLC

    Correspondent: Ryan M. Kaiser · The Kaiser Law Firm

    transfer-to-asserter

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.

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Inventors

Steven T. Trolan: No employer is explicitly named in the patent document at the time of filing. The "Original Assignee" is listed as "Individual," which suggests Steven T. Trolan was the original owner of the patent.

Original assignee

The original assignee on the issued patent US6795918 was Steven T. Trolan, as indicated by "Individual" being listed as the original assignee on Google Patents and the application being "filed by Individual" on March 7, 2000. It is not determinable from the patent text or readily available public information whether Steven T. Trolan, as an individual, shipped a product embodying the claims. The primary line of business for an individual inventor would be innovation or technology development. The patent's legal status is "Expired - Fee Related" as of March 7, 2020.

Assignment timeline

  • 2015-01-10 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-22 — Reel 034783/0463
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: STEVEN T. TROLAN
    • Assignee: WETRO LAN LLC, TEXAS
    • Correspondent: Ryan M. Kaiser, The Kaiser Law Firm, PLLC, PO Box 3127, Vancouver, WA 98668
    • Context: Transfer to a new entity that subsequently initiated litigation concerning the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6795918
    2000 : Filed by Individual inventor
    2004 : Issued to Individual inventor
    2015 : Assigned to WETRO LAN LLC
         : First infringement suit filed
    2020 : Patent expired

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The patent was assigned from the individual inventor, Steven T. Trolan, to WETRO LAN LLC. WETRO LAN LLC does not appear to be an operating company with products in commerce. The fact that numerous litigation cases were filed by WETRO LAN LLC shortly after this assignment suggests a licensing-only or assertion-focused entity.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — present. WETRO LAN LLC is listed as the assignee on January 22, 2015. Google Patents indicates "Family has litigation," with multiple US cases filed in the Texas Eastern District Court and Texas Western District Court in 2015, immediately following the assignment to WETRO LAN LLC. This pattern of immediate assertion after acquisition is characteristic of a patent assertion entity (NPE).
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — unclear. Only one assignment is recorded in the provided information. The correspondent for the 2015 assignment to WETRO LAN LLC was Ryan M. Kaiser, The Kaiser Law Firm, PLLC. Without additional assignment records for other patents or within this patent's chain, it's not possible to determine if this correspondent recurs.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There is only one recorded assignment in the timeline provided.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — present. The assignment to WETRO LAN LLC was recorded on January 22, 2015. Google Patents shows numerous litigation cases filed in February, March, and April 2015, which is within six months of the assignment date. This timing strongly suggests the transfer was made to enable patent assertion.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The assignor was an individual, Steven T. Trolan, and there is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While WETRO LAN LLC appears to be an asserting entity, there is no information to suggest it is asserting this patent on behalf of a specific operating company.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee, WETRO LAN LLC, is an asserting entity, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. The assignment of US6795918 from the individual inventor Steven T. Trolan to WETRO LAN LLC on January 22, 2015 (Reel 034783/0463), immediately preceded a flurry of infringement lawsuits filed in February, March, and April 2015, as shown by Google Patents litigation data. This pattern, combined with WETRO LAN LLC's status as a litigation-focused entity, indicates a shell-entity transfer for assertion purposes.

For verification, see the USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US6795918.

Generated 5/29/2026, 6:00:34 PM