Patent 7181743

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. 2001-08-28 · recorded 2001-09-27 · reel 007255/0636 · ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST

    FONTENOT, LARRY A.; MASTERS, MICHAEL W.; WELCH, LONNIE R.; WERME, PAUL V.UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, THE

    Correspondent: · NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER DAHLGREN DIVISION

    initial assignment

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

  • Paul V. Werme (US Department of Navy)
  • Michael W. Masters (US Department of Navy)
  • Larry A. Fontenot (US Department of Navy)
  • Lonnie R. Welch (US Department of Navy)

It is assumed that the inventors were employed by the US Department of Navy at the time of filing, as they assigned their interest to the Navy shortly after the application filing date.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent as the original assignee is the US Department of Navy.
The US Department of Navy is a government entity primarily involved in defense, research, and development. Given the patent's description of the "Resource Management Architecture" being developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center—Dahlgren Division (NSWC-DD), it is highly likely that they developed and utilized products or systems embodying the claimed invention.
Current Status: Operating (as a government agency).

Assignment timeline

The USPTO Patent Assignment Search for US7181743 revealed the following assignment record:

  • 2001-08-28 (executed) / recorded 2001-09-27 — Reel 007255/0636
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: FONTENOT, LARRY A.; MASTERS, MICHAEL W.; WELCH, LONNIE R.; WERME, PAUL V. (all named inventors)
    • Assignee: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, THE
    • Correspondent: NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER DAHLGREN DIVISION; HEAD, OFFICE OF COUNSEL; 17320 DAHLGREN ROAD, SUITE 217; DAHLGREN, VA 22448-5100.
    • Context: Initial assignment of patent rights from the individual inventors to their employer, the US Department of Navy.

No other assignment records for US7181743 were found in the USPTO Assignment Center.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 7181743
    2001 : Inventors assign to US Dept Navy
    2001 : Application filed
    2007 : Patent issued
    2023 : Patent expired

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to the US Department of Navy, which is an operating government entity, not a shell or licensing-only entity. [cite: USPTO Reel 007255/0636]
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. The assignee in the recorded chain is the US Department of Navy, which is not a known patent asserting entity (NPE). [cite: USPTO Reel 007255/0636]
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. There is only one recorded assignment for this patent, thus no recurring correspondent across multiple links in the chain. The correspondent is the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, which is consistent with the government assignee. [cite: USPTO Reel 007255/0636]
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded, precluding multiple consecutive transfers.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While litigation has been noted (e.g., IPR2025-00341 filed in 2025, and District Court cases in 2024), there are no recorded assignments in the USPTO database that transfer the patent to an asserting entity in proximity to these litigation dates. The patent expired in June 2023.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The US Department of Navy is a government entity and has not undergone bankruptcy proceedings.
  7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence in the assignment record of an operating company transferring the patent to an NPE for assertion against competitors.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains assigned to the US Department of Navy and has not been acquired by a defensive aggregator like RPX, AST, or LOT Network.

Verdict

Insufficient data
The only recorded assignment for US7181743 is the initial transfer from the inventors to the US Department of Navy (Reel 007255/0636, executed 2001-08-28, recorded 2001-09-27). This assignment chain does not exhibit any of the typical patterns or signals associated with NPEs or patent trolls. While litigation (including an IPR filed by Unified Patents) is associated with the patent, the ownership record itself does not reveal NPE activity. [cite: USPTO Reel 007255/0636]

For verification, see the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 6:48:37 PM