Assignment history

Inventors

• Guy Cohen. At the time of filing, Mr. Cohen was an employee of Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. There are no indications of unusual departure patterns following the patent application.

Original assignee

• Saifun Semiconductors Ltd.
  Saifun was an Israeli company specializing in the development and licensing of non-volatile memory (NVM) technology, particularly its proprietary NROM (Nitride Read-Only Memory) technology. The company was an IP licensor and did not manufacture or sell its own memory chips, but rather licensed its designs to other semiconductor companies. Saifun was acquired by Spansion Inc. in 2007.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Search database reveals the following chain of ownership for US patent 6963505.

• 2004-03-18 (executed) / recorded 2004-03-24 — Reel 015093/0369

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Guy Cohen (Inventor)
  • Assignee: Saifun Semiconductors Ltd.
  • Correspondent: Eitan, Pearl, Latzer & Cohen-Zedek, 7 Shenkar St., Herzelia Pituach 46733, Israel
  • Context: Standard assignment of invention from inventor to employer.

• 2008-03-19 (executed) / recorded 2008-04-10 — Reel 020696/0751

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Saifun Semiconductors Ltd.
  • Assignee: Spansion Inc.
  • Correspondent: O'Melveny & Myers LLP, 400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071
  • Context: Transfer of assets following the acquisition of Saifun by Spansion in late 2007.

• 2014-12-30 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-28 — Reel 034335/0001

  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: Barclays Bank PLC
  • Assignee: Spansion Inc., Spansion Technology LLC, Spansion Technology Inc., Spansion LLC
  • Correspondent: O'Melveny & Myers LLP, 400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071-2899
  • Context: Termination and release of a security interest previously granted to Barclays Bank, likely related to corporate financing.

• 2015-01-26 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-28 — Reel 034346/0149

  • Conveyance: Change of Name
  • Assignor: Saifun Semiconductors Ltd.
  • Assignee: Spansion Israel Ltd.
  • Correspondent: O'Melveny & Myers LLP, 400 S. Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071
  • Context: A corporate name change reflecting the post-acquisition integration of Saifun into Spansion.

• 2015-08-11 (executed) / recorded 2016-08-15 — Reel 039676/0237

  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
  • Assignee: Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc.
  • Correspondent: O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Two Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111
  • Context: Collateralization of patent assets for financing, following the merger of Spansion and Cypress Semiconductor in 2015. A corrective assignment was filed on 2018-10-16 (Reel 047643/0948).

• 2022-03-16 (executed) / recorded 2022-03-18 — Reel 063548/0193

  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: MUFG Union Bank, N.A.
  • Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, Spansion LLC
  • Correspondent: O'Melveny & Myers LLP, 400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071-2899
  • Context: Release of a security interest, indicating a financing agreement was concluded or restructured.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 6963505
    2003 : Application filed by Saifun
    2005 : Patent issued
    2008 : Assigned to Spansion Inc
    2015 : Spansion merges with Cypress
         : Security interest to Morgan Stanley
    2022 : Security interest released

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: not present. The patent has remained with operating companies (Saifun, Spansion, Cypress) throughout its life.
2. Known asserter in the chain: not present. The assignees are well-known operating companies in the semiconductor industry.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: not present. While O'Melveny & Myers LLP appears on multiple recordings, they are a large, well-known law firm representing the same continuous client through a series of mergers and financing events (Spansion, then Cypress). This is typical for an operating company's portfolio management, not an NPE pattern.
4. Cascading transfers: not present. The transfers are separated by many years and correspond to major corporate events (acquisition, merger, financing).
5. Pre-litigation transfer: not present. There is no litigation history for this patent, and the transfers are not aligned with any known assertion campaigns.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: not present. While Spansion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, it successfully reorganized. The subsequent transfers are part of its merger with Cypress, not a bankruptcy liquidation.
7. Privateering: not present. The patent has not been transferred to a third-party assertion entity.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): not present.

Verdict

• Insufficient data

The recorded assignments show a clear and logical progression of ownership from an inventor to their employer (Saifun), which was subsequently acquired by another operating company (Spansion), which then merged with a third (Cypress). The security agreements are standard corporate financing activities. There are no signals suggesting NPE or patent-troll activity. The patent remained within the control of a product-oriented semiconductor company.

For verification, see the USPTO assignment records here: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/search/details/patent/6963505