Patent 7636146

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 (2)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2004-11-11 · reel 015371/0895 · Assignment

    FUJITA, SHINSEIKO EPSON CORPORATION

    Original assignment from inventor to corporate entity

  2. 2018-04-19 · recorded 2018-05-15 · reel 046153/0397 · Assignment

    SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED

    Correspondent: · KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL

    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

  • Shin Fujita (Seiko Epson Corp)

Original assignee

Seiko Epson Corp. primarily manufactures and sells printers, professional imaging products, projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems, and industrial robots. They are an operating company. Seiko Epson Corp. ships products embodying the claims, specifically electro-optical panels like LCDs. Seiko Epson Corp. is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

  • 2004-11-11 (executed) / recorded 2004-11-11 — Reel 015371/0895

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: FUJITA, SHIN
    • Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    • Correspondent: NOT RECORDED.
    • Context: Original assignment from inventor to corporate entity.

  • 2018-04-19 (executed) / recorded 2018-05-15 — Reel 046153/0397

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    • Assignee: 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED
    • Correspondent: KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL LLP, 1177 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES. This firm has appeared as correspondent on other patent assignments.
    • Context: Transfer-to-asserter.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 7636146
    2004 : Assigned to Seiko Epson Corp
    2009 : Issued
    2018 : Assigned to 138 East LCD Advancements Ltd
    2025 : PTAB case IPR2025-01396 filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — present. On 2018-05-15, Seiko Epson Corporation, an operating company, assigned the patent to 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED (Reel 046153/0397). The assignee's name, "LCD Advancements Limited," suggests a licensing or holding company rather than an operating entity that manufactures products. Further, Unified Patents lists "138 East LCD Advancements Ltd." as an NPE.

  2. Known asserter in the chain — present. 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED is listed by Unified Patents as a non-practicing entity (NPE).

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL LLP appears as the correspondent for the 2018-05-15 assignment to 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED (Reel 046153/0397). This firm has a known history of representing NPEs in patent assertion.

  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only two assignments are recorded: the initial assignment from the inventor to Seiko Epson, and the subsequent assignment from Seiko Epson to 138 East LCD Advancements Ltd. There are no multiple consecutive transfers through chained LLCs in a short period.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The patent was assigned to 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED on 2018-05-15 (Reel 046153/0397). While several litigation cases are listed on Google Patents, their filing dates (e.g., 2025-cv-00440, 2025-cv-00358, 2026-cv-00355, 2026-cv-00126) are significantly after the assignment date, making it difficult to definitively claim a "pre-litigation transfer" within a 6-month window based solely on the provided information.

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication in the provided information or Google Patents legal events that Seiko Epson Corp. filed for bankruptcy.

  7. Privateering — unclear. While the transfer is to a known NPE, there is no explicit information in the provided text or Google Patents indicating an agreement where Seiko Epson transferred the patent to an NPE to assert on its behalf against competitors.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain terminates with 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED, which is identified as an NPE, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. The patent was transferred from an operating company (Seiko Epson Corporation) to 138 EAST LCD ADVANCEMENTS LIMITED (Reel 046153/0397), which is a known Non-Practicing Entity. The involvement of a correspondent firm known for representing NPEs further strengthens this conclusion.

USPTO Assignment Center search for US7636146: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/22/2026, 6:45:35 AM