Patent 8374358

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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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

  • Markus Buck: Employee of Nuance Communications Inc. at the time of filing.
  • Tobias Wolff: Employee of Nuance Communications Inc. at the time of filing.
  • Toby Christian Lawin-Ore: Employee of Nuance Communications Inc. at the time of filing.
  • Samuel Ngouoko Mboungueng: Employee of Nuance Communications Inc. at the time of filing.
  • Gerhard Schmidt: Employee of Nuance Communications Inc. at the time of filing.

It is common practice for inventors to assign their rights to their employer at the time of filing, which is reflected in the initial assignment to Nuance Communications Inc. on the patent's filing date.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Nuance Communications Inc.

Nuance Communications Inc. was primarily involved in developing artificial intelligence, speech recognition, and natural language processing software and services. They shipped various products incorporating speech processing technologies, including solutions for healthcare, automotive, and customer engagement.

Nuance Communications Inc. was acquired by Microsoft Corporation in 2022. However, the intellectual property, including US Patent 8,374,358, was spun off into Cerence Inc. in 2019, prior to the Microsoft acquisition.

Assignment timeline

  • 2010-03-29 (executed) / recorded 2010-03-30 — Reel 024470/0947

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: BUCK, MARKUS; MBOUNGUENG, SAMUEL NGOUOKO; SCHMIDT, GERHARD; WOLFF, TOBIAS; LAWIN-ORE, TOBY CHRISTIAN (inventors)
    • Assignee: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Correspondent: KENNETH J. MCLEAN, NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC., 1 AVP ROAD, BURLINGTON, MA 01803
    • Context: Initial assignment of patent rights from the inventors to their employer.

  • 2019-10-18 (executed) / recorded 2019-10-23 — Reel 050836/0191

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Assignee: CERENCE INC.
    • Correspondent: LORNA C. BRYANT, Cerence Inc., 15 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803. This correspondent recurs in subsequent transfers involving Cerence entities.
    • Context: Transfer of intellectual property as part of the spin-off of Cerence Inc. from Nuance Communications Inc.

  • 2019-10-28 (executed) / recorded 2019-10-29 — Reel 050860/0313

    • Conveyance: Correction Assignment
    • Assignor: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: LORNA C. BRYANT, Cerence Inc., 15 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803. This correspondent recurs in subsequent transfers involving Cerence entities.
    • Context: Corrective assignment to accurately reflect the assignee name, transferring to Cerence Operating Company.

  • 2019-11-01 (executed) / recorded 2019-11-07 — Reel 050901/0979

    • Conveyance: Security Agreement
    • Assignor: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Assignee: BARCLAYS BANK PLC
    • Correspondent: CHIA-LUEI WANG, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, 745 7TH AVE, NY, NY 10019
    • Context: Cerence Operating Company pledges patents as collateral for a financing agreement.

  • 2020-06-12 (executed) / recorded 2020-06-12 — Reel 051770/0097

    • Conveyance: Release
    • Assignor: BARCLAYS BANK PLC
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: JENNIFER D. RHEIN, SKADDEN ARPS SLATE MEAGHER & FLOM LLP, ONE MANHATTAN WEST, NEW YORK, NY 10001
    • Context: Barclays Bank PLC releases its security interest in the patent.

  • 2020-06-12 (executed) / recorded 2020-06-15 — Reel 051770/0256

    • Conveyance: Security Agreement
    • Assignor: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Assignee: WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.
    • Correspondent: JOSHUA LINDSTROM, WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, 800 WALNUT ST., DES MOINES, IA 50309
    • Context: Cerence Operating Company pledges patents as collateral for a new financing agreement with Wells Fargo.

  • 2022-04-19 (executed) / recorded 2022-04-19 — Reel 052935/0586

    • Conveyance: Correction Assignment
    • Assignor: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: LORNA C. BRYANT, CERENCE INC., 15 WAYSIDE ROAD, BURLINGTON, MA 01803. This correspondent recurs in previous transfers involving Cerence entities.
    • Context: Further corrective assignment related to the initial spin-off transfer from Nuance to Cerence.

  • 2024-12-23 (executed) / recorded 2025-01-02 — Reel 055106/0424

    • Conveyance: Release
    • Assignor: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
    • Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    • Correspondent: MICHELLE G. MOODY, WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., LAW DEPARTMENT, 800 WALNUT ST, MAC D1053-030, DES MOINES, IA 50309
    • Context: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. releases its security interest in the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8374358
    2010 : Filed by Nuance Communications
    2013 : Issued
    2019 : Assigned to Cerence Inc
         : Assigned to Cerence Operating Co
         : Security Agreement with Barclays
    2020 : Release by Barclays
         : Security Agreement with Wells Fargo
    2022 : Corrective Assignment
    2025 : Release by Wells Fargo
    2026 : Infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The transfers are between Nuance Communications Inc., Cerence Inc., and Cerence Operating Company, all of which are operating companies. The security agreements are with established banks.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Cerence Operating Company is not listed as a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Lorna C. Bryant of Cerence Inc. appears as the correspondent for the assignment to Cerence Inc. (2019-10-23, Reel 050836/0191), the corrective assignment to Cerence Operating Company (2019-10-29, Reel 050860/0313), and another corrective assignment to Cerence Operating Company (2022-04-19, Reel 052935/0586).
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. While there are multiple transfers/recordings in 2019 and 2020, they are related to a corporate spin-off and subsequent financing agreements, not rapid, consecutive transfers through unrelated shell entities.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The most recent assignment (release of security interest) was in 2025-01-02, which is more than 6 months before the infringement suit filing date of May 4, 2026.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The transfer from Nuance to Cerence was a corporate spin-off, not a bankruptcy proceeding.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While Cerence is an operating company, without further information on the specific nature of its relationship with Nuance post-spin or the strategic intent behind the assertion against Amazon, a definitive call cannot be made. However, the current litigation context suggests a direct assertion by an operating company.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The current assignee, Cerence Operating Company, is an operating company that spun off from Nuance Communications Inc. The patent is being asserted in an infringement suit against Amazon.com, Inc. et al., which are other operating companies. The recorded assignments primarily reflect corporate reorganization (Nuance to Cerence, Reel 050836/0191 and Reel 050860/0313) and routine corporate financing (security agreements with Barclays and Wells Fargo, followed by releases). The recurrence of the same correspondent for Cerence entity transfers (Lorna C. Bryant) indicates internal legal handling for an operating entity rather than a multi-entity NPE operation.

USPTO Assignment Center Search for US8374358

Generated 5/29/2026, 9:03:16 PM