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.

Assignment history

Inventors

Yasuhiro Torisawa (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Kaoru Abe (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Yasuaki Muguruma (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Shigekazu Fujita (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Hidenori Ogawa (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Naoto Utsumi (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)
Masahiro Miyake (Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.)

No unusual patterns observed, as all inventors appear to be employed by the original assignee at the time of filing.

Original assignee

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. is the original assignee named on the issued patent. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is a global pharmaceutical company that develops and markets a range of products, including pharmaceuticals for psychiatric, neurological, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal diseases. One of their well-known products is tolvaptan (brand name Samsca, Jynarque), which is a vasopressin antagonist. The patent US8501730 is for a process to prepare intermediates for a vasopressin antagonist, suggesting a direct link to their product line. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

The USPTO Patent Assignment Search at https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ shows no assignment records for US8501730.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8501730
    2012 : Filed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
    2013 : Issued to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd

NPE / troll-pattern signals

Shell-entity transfer — not present
Known asserter in the chain — not present
Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present
Cascading transfers — not present
Pre-litigation transfer — not present
Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present
Privateering — not present
Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
Based on the available information, the patent appears to be owned by the original assignee, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd., which is an operating company with products in the pharmaceutical sector. There are no recorded assignments of this patent, indicating that it remains with the original developer and manufacturer. This suggests the patent is likely used for defending their market position or asserting against direct competitors, as evidenced by the litigation history where Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. v. Lupin Ltd. was a case.

For verification, see the USPTO Assignment Center search for US8501730: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/