Assignment history

Inventors

• Eli Arviv
• Brian Spinar
• Kenneth L. Stanwood
• David Gazelle
• Ofer Zimmerman
• Penny Efraim
• Yair Bourlas
• Sheldon L. Gilbert

Employer at time of filing: The patent text indicates that the original assignee was WiLAN Inc. It's highly probable the inventors were employed by WiLAN Inc. or Ensemble Communications, Inc. (the assignor in the first recorded assignment to Wi-LAN, Inc.) at the time of the underlying provisional application filing (December 27, 2000), but this cannot be definitively determined from the provided text alone. No unusual patterns of inventors departing the original assignee are discernable from the provided information.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is WiLAN Inc.

Based on publicly available information, WiLAN Inc. (now Quarterhill Inc.) is primarily a patent licensing company that acquires and manages intellectual property. It is not generally known for shipping products that directly embody the claims of this patent, but rather for licensing its patent portfolio to operating companies.

Current status: Quarterhill Inc. (formerly WiLAN Inc.) is an operating public company focused on the acquisition and licensing of intellectual property.

Assignment timeline

USPTO Patent Assignment Search

To accurately reconstruct the full assignment record, I need to use the USPTO Assignment Center search. I will access the "Patent Assignment Search" or "Assignment Center" tool on the USPTO website.

Here's the recorded assignment timeline for US Patent 8537757 based on the provided data within Google Patents:

• 2012-11-27 (executed) / recorded 2012-11-27 — Reel 029706/0064
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: ENSEMBLE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
  • Assignee: WI-LAN, INC.
  • Correspondent: BAKER & MCKENZIE LLP, 2001 ROSS AVENUE, SUITE 2300, DALLAS, TEXAS 75201.
  • Context: Transfer from original applicant (likely a predecessor-in-interest to WiLAN Inc.) to Wi-LAN, INC.
• 2017-06-13 (executed) / recorded 2017-06-13 — Reel 039401/0879
  • Conveyance: MERGER AND CHANGE OF NAME
  • Assignor: QUARTERHILL INC., WI-LAN INC.
  • Assignee: QUARTERHILL INC.
  • Correspondent: DARRYL G. WALKER, 207 BANK STREET, SUITE 101, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K2P 2N2, CANADA. This correspondent recurs on the next entry for this patent.
  • Context: Internal corporate restructuring where Wi-LAN Inc. merged and changed its name to Quarterhill Inc.
• 2017-06-14 (executed) / recorded 2017-06-14 — Reel 039401/0885
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: QUARTERHILL INC.
  • Assignee: WI-LAN INC.
  • Correspondent: DARRYL G. WALKER, 207 BANK STREET, SUITE 101, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K2P 2N2, CANADA. This correspondent recurs on the previous entry for this patent.
  • Context: Re-assignment back to WI-LAN INC. (likely a subsidiary of Quarterhill Inc.) after the merger/name change.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8537757
    2012 : Assigned to Wi-LAN Inc
    2013 : Patent granted
    2017 : Merger Quarterhill Inc
         : Reassigned to Wi-LAN Inc
    2021 : Anticipated expiration

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The assignees are Wi-LAN, Inc. and Quarterhill Inc., both public companies known for patent licensing. The initial assignor, Ensemble Communications, Inc., was an operating company that developed wireless communication systems.
2. Known asserter in the chain — present. Wi-LAN, Inc. is a well-known patent licensing company frequently listed as a high-frequency plaintiff or NPE by entities like Unified Patents and RPX. [cite: The provided patent text includes litigation links from Google Patents, which lead to Unified Patents data. The Unified Patents links for US8537757 show cases filed in "California Southern District Court" and "California Northern District Court", and "Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit".]
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Darryl G. Walker of 207 BANK STREET, SUITE 101, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K2P 2N2, CANADA, served as the correspondent for both the 2017-06-13 (Reel 039401/0879) and 2017-06-14 (Reel 039401/0885) conveyances. This indicates a consistent legal representative during the internal corporate events related to Quarterhill Inc. and Wi-LAN Inc.
4. Cascading transfers — present. Two consecutive assignments (a merger/change of name followed by an assignment of interest) occurred within a single day in June 2017 (2017-06-13 and 2017-06-14, both on Reel 039401). While not necessarily to unrelated shell LLCs, it indicates rapid internal restructuring of ownership.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The initial assignment to Wi-LAN, Inc. was in 2012-11-27. The earliest litigation noted for this patent is in 2014, which is outside the 6-month window from the assignment date. However, the precise filing dates of the various lawsuits in California courts (e.g., 3:14-cv-02235) are not provided to confirm if any assignment occurred directly preceding them.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication in the provided information that Ensemble Communications, Inc. (the initial assignor to Wi-LAN, Inc.) underwent bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. While Wi-LAN, Inc. is a licensing entity, the context of the initial transfer from Ensemble Communications, Inc. does not explicitly detail a privateering arrangement. Further investigation of SEC filings or specific litigation documents would be needed.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain ends with WI-LAN INC., which is a known NPE/patent licensing entity, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

This verdict is based on multiple strong signals. Wi-LAN Inc. is a known patent licensing entity, identified as an NPE, and appears as the assignee in the primary transfer (Reel 029706/0064 on 2012-11-27) and the ultimate assignee in the chain (Reel 039401/0885 on 2017-06-14). Additionally, there are cascading transfers (Reel 039401/0879 and 039401/0885 on 2017-06-13 and 2017-06-14, respectively) within Wi-LAN Inc.'s corporate structure, and a repeat correspondent (Darryl G. Walker) for these transfers, which are common patterns associated with NPE activity.

USPTO Assignment Center Search