Patent 8515637

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.

  1. 2010-12-22 · recorded 2011-03-15 · reel 025985/0368 · Assignment

    ANDERSON, RANDALL T.CATERPILLAR INC.

    Correspondent: LISA L DANIELSON

    transfer-to-original-assignee

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

  • Randall T. Anderson (Caterpillar Inc.)
  • Corwin E. Storer (Caterpillar Inc.)

Original assignee

The original assignee, Caterpillar Inc., is a well-known manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. They ship products embodying the claims, as the patent relates to machine control systems for heavy machinery like tracked loaders. Caterpillar Inc. is currently an operating company.

Assignment timeline

  • 2010-12-22 (executed) / recorded 2011-03-15 — Reel 025985/0368
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: ANDERSON, RANDALL T.
    • Assignee: CATERPILLAR INC.
    • Correspondent: LISA L DANIELSON, CATTERPILLAR INC., 100 N.E. ADAMS STREET, PEORIA, ILLINOIS 61629-9510.
    • Context: Transfer of inventor's interest to original assignee.

The USPTO Assignment Center search at https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (Patent Number: 8515637) shows no further recorded assignments for this patent. This indicates that Caterpillar Inc. remains the current owner of US Patent 8515637.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8515637
    2010 : Inventors assigned to Caterpillar
    2013 : Patent issued to Caterpillar

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to Caterpillar Inc., an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Caterpillar Inc. is not identified as a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Only one assignment is recorded, handled by an attorney for Caterpillar Inc.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only a single assignment from the inventors to the original assignee is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There is no recorded litigation, and no transfer to suggest preparation for litigation.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Caterpillar Inc. is an active, operating company.
  7. Privateering — not present. No evidence of privateering.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is owned by an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to Caterpillar Inc., the original operating company assignee. There are no other assignments to suggest any change in ownership or a transfer to a non-practicing entity.

USPTO Assignment Center search page for US8515637: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/[8515637](/patent/8515637)

Generated 5/27/2026, 12:02:32 PM