Patent 8377903

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 (4)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2010-05-05 · reel 024629/0878 · Assignment

    DE LUCA, GIAMPIEROLABORATOIRES SERONO SA

    Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET

    internal reorg

  2. 2010-05-05 · reel 024629/0882 · Assignment

    LOPEZ-BRESNAHAN, MARIA, YTHIER, ARNAUD, MUNAFO, ALAINMERCK SERONO SA

    Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET

    internal reorg

  3. 2010-05-05 · reel 024629/0879 · Merger

    LABORATOIRES SERONO SAMERCK SERONO SA

    Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET

    internal reorg

  4. 2023-03-20 · reel 059952/0970 · Change of Name

    MERCK SERONO SAMERCK SERONO SA

    Correspondent: JANET M. MCDONNELL

    change of name only

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

  • Giampiero De luca (Merck Serono SA)
  • Arnaud Ythier (Merck Serono SA)
  • Alain Munafo (Merck Serono SA)
  • Maria Lopez-Bresnahan (Merck Serono SA)

Original assignee

The original assignee, Merck Serono SA, is a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, a multinational pharmaceutical, chemical, and life sciences company. They do ship products embodying the claims, specifically Mavenclad (cladribine) for multiple sclerosis. Merck Serono SA is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

  • 2010-05-05 (executed) / recorded 2010-05-05 — Reel 024629/0878
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: DE LUCA, GIAMPIERO
    • Assignee: LABORATOIRES SERONO SA
    • Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET, Laboratoires Serono S.A.
    • Context: Internal reorg
  • 2010-05-05 (executed) / recorded 2010-05-05 — Reel 024629/0882
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: LOPEZ-BRESNAHAN, MARIA, YTHIER, ARNAUD, MUNAFO, ALAIN
    • Assignee: MERCK SERONO SA
    • Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET, Laboratoires Serono S.A. (This correspondent also appears on reel 024629/0878)
    • Context: Internal reorg
  • 2010-05-05 (executed) / recorded 2010-05-05 — Reel 024629/0879
    • Conveyance: Merger
    • Assignor: LABORATOIRES SERONO S.A.
    • Assignee: MERCK SERONO SA
    • Correspondent: MCDONNELL, JANET, Laboratoires Serono S.A. (This correspondent also appears on reel 024629/0878 and 024629/0882)
    • Context: Internal reorg (change of name due to merger)
  • 2023-03-20 (executed) / recorded 2023-03-20 — Reel 059952/0970
    • Conveyance: Change of Name
    • Assignor: MERCK SERONO SA
    • Assignee: MERCK SERONO SA
    • Correspondent: JANET M. MCDONNELL, Merck Serono SA. (This correspondent also appears on reel 024629/0878, 024629/0882, and 024629/0879)
    • Context: Change of name only

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8377903
    2010 : Filed by Merck Serono SA
         : Inventors assigned to Lab Serono SA
         : Inventors assigned to Merck Serono SA
         : Lab Serono SA merged into Merck Serono SA
    2013 : Issued
    2023 : Merck Serono SA change of name

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. All transfers are to or from entities clearly associated with Merck Serono SA.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Merck Serono SA is an operating company.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Janet McDonnell (Laboratoires Serono S.A. / Merck Serono SA) is listed as the correspondent on all recorded assignments (Reel 024629/0878, 024629/0882, 024629/0879, and 059952/0970). This indicates consistent internal handling of assignments.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. The initial assignments in 2010 are part of a simultaneous internal reorganization/merger.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The last assignment (change of name) was in March 2023, while litigation cases were filed starting in October 2022.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present.
  7. Privateering — not present.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The assignment records (Reel 024629/0878, 024629/0882, 024629/0879, and 059952/0970) consistently show ownership within the Merck Serono SA / Laboratoires Serono S.A. corporate structure, and the litigation summary indicates Merck Serono SA as the plaintiff. This aligns with an operating company asserting its patent rights.

USPTO Assignment Center search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/index.html

Generated 6/25/2026, 6:45:48 AM