Assignment history

Inventors

• Kiyofumi Abe: Panasonic Corp
• Shinya Kadono: Panasonic Corp
• Satoshi Kondo: Panasonic Corp
• Makoto Hagai: Panasonic Corp

No unusual patterns noted; all inventors appear to have been employed by the original assignee at the time of filing.

Original assignee

Panasonic Corp. is a multinational electronics corporation that has historically shipped a wide range of products embodying picture coding and decoding technologies, which would include the claims of this patent. Its primary line of business is in the development, manufacturing, and sale of electronic products. Panasonic Corp is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

• 2014-01-24 (executed) / recorded 2014-01-24 — Reel 031383/0951
  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC
  • Assignee: HIGHBRIDGE PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES, LLC, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
  • Correspondent: BLANK ROME LLP, 1800 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NW, SUITE 200, WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 20036-1805, United States
  • Context: Securitization
• 2014-02-23 (executed) / recorded 2014-02-28 — Reel 031502/0760
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: PANASONIC CORPORATION
  • Assignee: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC
  • Correspondent: JEFFREY B. REICH, ESQ., REICH RADER & GINSBURG LLP, 708 THIRD AVENUE, 19TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10017, United States
  • Context: Transfer to asserter
• 2014-03-12 (executed) / recorded 2014-03-12 — Reel 031575/0281
  • Conveyance: Security Interest
  • Assignor: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC
  • Assignee: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
  • Correspondent: RICHARD A. LARKIN, ESQ., SULLIVAN & CROMWELL LLP, 125 Broad Street, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10004, United States
  • Context: Securitization
• 2016-07-15 (executed) / recorded 2016-07-21 — Reel 037505/0074
  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: HPS INVESTMENT PARTNERS, LLC
  • Assignee: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC
  • Correspondent: BLANK ROME LLP, 1800 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NW, SUITE 200, WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 20036-1805, United States. This correspondent recurred in this chain.
  • Context: Release of security interest
• 2017-11-12 (executed) / recorded 2017-12-19 — Reel 042129/0342
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: ABE, KIYOFUMI; HAGAI, MAKOTO; KADONO, SHINYA; KONDO, SATOSHI
  • Assignee: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
  • Correspondent: GREENBLUM AND BERNSTEIN, P.L.C., 1950 Indian Creek Drive, TROY, MICHIGAN, 48098, United States
  • Context: Inventor assignment to original assignee
• 2020-11-16 (executed) / recorded 2020-12-07 — Reel 051051/0247
  • Conveyance: Release
  • Assignor: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
  • Assignee: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
  • Correspondent: PETER A. SMOLOWE, ESQ., COOLEY LLP, 1290 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10104-1300, United States
  • Context: Release of security interest
• 2020-12-22 (executed) / recorded 2021-01-13 — Reel 051286/0202
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC
  • Assignee: VIDEOLABS, INC.
  • Correspondent: DOUGLAS R. MEIER, ESQ., THE MEIER LAW FIRM, PLLC, 101 W. 12TH ST., SUITE 705, AUSTIN, TEXAS, 78701, United States
  • Context: Transfer to asserter

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 7769238
    2007 : Filed by Panasonic Corp
    2010 : Issued
    2014 : Securitization to Highbridge
         : Assigned to Optis Wireless
         : Security interest to Wilmington
    2016 : Release by HPS
    2017 : Inventors assign to Matsushita
    2020 : Release by Wilmington
         : Assigned to VIDEOLABS Inc

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present. Panasonic Corp assigned to OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC (Reel 031502/0760), which is a known NPE. Subsequently, OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC assigned to VIDEOLABS, INC. (Reel 051286/0202), also a known NPE.
2. Known asserter in the chain — present. OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC is a known patent asserter. VIDEOLABS, INC. is also a known patent asserter.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. The firm BLANK ROME LLP appears as correspondent on two related security agreements/releases (Reel 031383/0951 and Reel 037505/0074).
4. Cascading transfers — not present. The main assignments to NPEs occurred in 2014 and 2020, which are more than 24 months apart.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While the patent family has seen extensive litigation, the specific dates of the first infringement suits against this patent are not readily available in the provided text to precisely compare with the assignment dates.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Panasonic Corp remains an operating company and did not file for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. There's no explicit information in the provided data or Google Patents about privateering arrangements.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The current assignee is VIDEOLABS, INC., a known asserter, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

This verdict is driven by multiple strong signals: the transfer from Panasonic Corp to OPTIS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, LLC (Reel 031502/0760) and subsequently to VIDEOLABS, INC. (Reel 051286/0202), both of which are known patent asserters. The recurrence of a specific law firm as correspondent in the chain further reinforces the structured nature of these transfers, common in NPE operations.

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