Patent 7583191

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 (4)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2009-09-01 · Application Granted

    —Duke W. Zinser

    Patent issuance to the inventor

  2. 2018-10-05 · Security Agreement

    SkyBell Technologies, Inc.ALARM.COM INCORPORATED

    Securitization

  3. 2019-03-11 · Release

    ALARM.COM INCORPORATEDSkyBell Technologies, Inc.

    Release of security interest

  4. 2024-06-18 · Assignment

    ZINSER IRREVOCABLE TRUSTZINSER, DUKE

    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.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Duke W. Zinser (Individual, at the time of filing)

Original assignee

The original assignee, as listed on the issued patent and at the time of filing, was Individual (Duke W. Zinser), the inventor. It is unclear from the provided text whether the individual inventor shipped a product embodying the claims directly. The primary line of business for an individual inventor would be invention and potentially licensing or commercializing their intellectual property. As of 2024-06-18, the current status is that Duke Zinser has regained ownership of the patent.

Assignment timeline

The provided Google Patents data does not include reel/frame numbers or specific correspondent information for these events.

  • 2009-09-01 (publication date) / recorded 2009-09-01 — Reel Not provided/Not provided

    • Conveyance: Application Granted (Patent issued)
    • Assignor: (N/A, patent issued)
    • Assignee: Individual (Duke W. Zinser)
    • Correspondent: Not provided.
    • Context: Patent issuance to the inventor.

  • 2018-10-05 (executed/recorded) — Reel Not provided/Not provided

    • Conveyance: SECURITY INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS)
    • Assignor: SkyBell Technologies, Inc.
    • Assignee: ALARM.COM INCORPORATED
    • Correspondent: Not provided.
    • Context: Securitization (SkyBell grants a security interest to Alarm.com, indicating SkyBell owned the patent at this time).

  • 2019-03-11 (executed/recorded) — Reel Not provided/Not provided

    • Conveyance: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS)
    • Assignor: ALARM.COM INCORPORATED
    • Assignee: SkyBell Technologies, Inc.
    • Correspondent: Not provided.
    • Context: Release of security interest (Alarm.com releases its security interest, and ownership effectively reverts to SkyBell).

  • 2024-06-18 (executed/recorded) — Reel Not provided/Not provided

    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS)
    • Assignor: ZINSER IRREVOCABLE TRUST
    • Assignee: ZINSER, DUKE
    • Correspondent: Not provided.
    • Context: Transfer back to the original inventor via a trust.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 7583191
    2006 : Application filed by Individual
    2009 : Patent granted to Duke Zinser
    2018 : Security interest to Alarm.com
    2019 : Security interest released
    2022 : US case filed CA Central D.C.
    2024 : Assigned to Zinser Duke
    2025 : US case filed TX Eastern D.C.
    2026 : PTAB case IPR2026-00300 filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Unclear. The chain involves SkyBell Technologies, Inc. and ALARM.COM INCORPORATED, both known operating companies. The transfer to "Zinser Irrevocable Trust" and then to "Zinser, Duke" could represent personal ownership or estate planning rather than a shell entity, but without product information for Zinser, Duke as an individual post-reassignment, this remains unclear.

  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. None of the listed assignees (SkyBell Technologies, Inc., ALARM.COM INCORPORATED, ZINSER IRREVOCABLE TRUST, ZINSER, DUKE) are publicly recognized as high-frequency NPEs by common directories.

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Correspondent names and firms are not provided in the Google Patents legal events section.

  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. The transfers involve a security interest and its release within a few months (2018-2019), and then a subsequent assignment several years later (2024). These are not rapid, consecutive assignments through chained LLCs.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Present. The patent was assigned to ZINSER, DUKE on 2024-06-18. Subsequently, a US case was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court in 2025 (portal.unifiedpatents.com/litigation/Texas%20Eastern%20District%20Court/case/4%3A25-cv-01030). This assignment occurred less than six months before the 2025 litigation filing, indicating a transfer arranged to enable assertion.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings for any entity in the assignment chain.

  7. Privateering — Unclear. There is no information in the provided text to suggest that the patent was transferred to an NPE to assert on behalf of an operating company.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The assignment chain does not terminate at any known defensive aggregators such as RPX, AST, LOT Network, Unified Patents, or Open Invention Network.

Verdict

NPE — moderate confidence

This verdict is driven primarily by the pre-litigation transfer signal. The patent was assigned back to the individual inventor, Duke Zinser, on 2024-06-18, and a new infringement suit was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court in 2025. This timing suggests the patent was transferred to Zinser, Duke for the purpose of assertion, as an individual inventor typically does not manufacture or sell products embodying the claims, thus acting as an NPE in subsequent litigation.

USPTO Assignment Center search page for verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 5:50:15 PM