Patent 8423235
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 (1)
Asserters network →Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.
2010-08-10 · recorded 2010-09-14 · reel 024984/0434 · Assignment
LEE, KAM-YOUNMTEKVISION CO., LTD.
Initial assignment from inventor
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.
Inventors
The sole named inventor of US patent 8423235 is Kam-Youn LEE. At the time of filing, Kam-Youn LEE was the assignor to MtekVision Co Ltd, indicating employment with or a contractual obligation to assign patent rights to MtekVision Co Ltd.
Original Assignee
The original assignee on the issued patent is MtekVision Co Ltd. MtekVision Co Ltd was a fabless semiconductor company specializing in multimedia processors, particularly for mobile applications and imaging solutions. Their products included image processing chips and video recording solutions. It is plausible that MtekVision Co Ltd shipped products embodying the claims, given their focus on video recording and image processing technology for mobile and vehicle applications.
MtekVision Co Ltd is a venture company specializing in Camera ASIC & System, providing total solutions including camera ASICs, camera modules, and camera systems. They have developed video and multimedia ICs used in mobile and automotive cameras, supplying over 400 million ICs. Their business scope includes image processing and recognition technology, semiconductors (Image Signal Processors and Multimedia Application Processors), and Original Development Manufacturing (ODM). They produce Car Driving Recorders (CDRs), Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS), and Digital Tachographs (DTG).
MtekVision's products, such as Car Driving Recorders (Black Boxes) and Digital Tachographs, directly embody the core concepts of US8423235, which describes a vehicle video recording device and a method for providing driving information based on sensed and vehicle information. MtekVision's "Car Driving Recorder" products incorporate features such as GPS, G-sensors, and various recording modes (driving, parking, event), which align with the patent's claims for collecting sensed and vehicle information to generate driving data.
MtekVision Co Ltd appears to be an active company. Their website shows recent developments, including the release of a "Black Box for Bikes" in 2024 and continuous development in automotive and semiconductor fields. Their legal information from Kompass indicates they were established in 2014, with activities in semiconductors and electronic/telecommunications engineering. There's a note about a company division in 2014, where "MtekVision Assets to MtekVision for IT division" which suggests an internal restructuring rather than dissolution.
Assignment timeline
I'm now searching the USPTO Assignment Center for US8423235.
The search for US8423235 on the USPTO Assignment Center reveals the following record:
- 2010-08-10 (executed) / recorded 2010-09-14 — Reel 024984/0434
- Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
- Assignor: LEE, KAM-YOUN
- Assignee: MTEKVISION CO., LTD.
- Correspondent: MTEKVISION CO., LTD., C/O MTEKVISION BLDG., #507-2, GAJWA-DONG, SEO-GU, INCHEON, KOREA (This is the same entity as the assignee, indicating an internal filing.)
- Context: Initial assignment from inventor to the corporate entity.
This is the only assignment record found on the USPTO Assignment Center for US8423235. This suggests that the patent has remained with MtekVision Co., Ltd. since its initial assignment from the inventor.
Timeline diagram
timeline
title Ownership of US 8423235
2010 : Inventor assigned to MtekVision Co Ltd
2013 : Patent Issued
NPE / troll-pattern signals
- Shell-entity transfer — not present. The sole recorded assignment is from the inventor to MtekVision Co Ltd, which is an operating company producing relevant products.
- Known asserter in the chain — not present. MtekVision Co Ltd is an operating company, not identified as a known NPE.
- Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Only one assignment is recorded, and the correspondent is the assignee itself, which is not a recurring third-party attorney or firm associated with NPEs.
- Cascading transfers — not present. There is only one recorded assignment.
- Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. No litigation is identified, so this signal cannot be assessed.
- Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. MtekVision Co Ltd appears to be an active operating company.
- Privateering — not present. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE for assertion on behalf of MtekVision.
- Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains with the original operating assignee.
Verdict
Insufficient data.
Based on the available USPTO assignment records, only the initial assignment from the inventor to the operating company, MtekVision Co Ltd, is present (Reel 024984/0434, recorded 2010-09-14). There are no subsequent transfers or other identifiable patterns that would indicate an NPE assertion. The original assignee, MtekVision Co Ltd, is an operating company that develops and manufactures products, including car driving recorders, which embody the claims of the patent.
Generated 7/8/2026, 6:04:41 PM