Patent 8488173

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

  • Laurence C. Klein (Employer not determinable from patent text)

Original assignee

The original assignee is MPHJ Tech Investments LLC. The patent text describes the "Virtual Copier" invention as software that manages paper, enabling it to be electronically copied in and out of devices and business applications, and explicitly states that "Virtual Copier is a unique combination of an intuitive application built on an open component architecture". However, based on the legal status "Expired - Fee Related" and the litigation history detailed in Google Patents, it is highly probable that MPHJ Tech Investments LLC primarily functions as a licensing entity rather than a product-shipping operating company. Its current status is operating, but largely in the context of patent assertion.

Assignment timeline

  • There are no assignment records for US8488173 found on the USPTO Assignment Center.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8488173
    2011 : Filed by MPHJ Tech Investments LLC
    2013 : Issued to MPHJ Tech Investments LLC
    2014 : PTAB case IPR2014-00538 filed
    2017 : Patent expired (fee related)

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — unclear. MPHJ Tech Investments LLC has a name that could suggest a shell entity ("Tech Investments LLC"). While the patent describes software, its primary business appears to be patent assertion given the extensive litigation listed in Google Patents. However, without assignment records showing a transfer to such an entity from an operating company, this signal remains unclear.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — present. MPHJ Tech Investments LLC is explicitly listed as the current assignee on Google Patents and is widely recognized as a patent asserter. Unified Patents also lists MPHJ Tech Investments LLC in relation to litigation involving this patent family, indicating its status as a known asserter.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. There are no assignment records to analyze for this patent.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are no assignment records to analyze for this patent.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While MPHJ Tech Investments LLC is a known asserter and there has been litigation involving this patent family, there are no assignment records to indicate a transfer immediately preceding litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No evidence in the patent record or Google Patents suggests a bankruptcy-related transfer.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While MPHJ Tech Investments LLC is an NPE, there is no direct evidence in the patent record or Google Patents to suggest this specific patent was transferred as part of a privateering arrangement.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains with MPHJ Tech Investments LLC, a known asserter, and has not been acquired by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence. This verdict is primarily driven by the explicit identification of MPHJ Tech Investments LLC as the original and current assignee, an entity widely recognized as a patent asserter (and also listed by Unified Patents as a litigant for this patent family). The extensive litigation associated with this patent family on Google Patents further supports this conclusion.

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

Generated 5/29/2026, 8:55:00 PM