Assignment history

Inventors

• Andrew Wolfe: No employer is listed on the patent.
• Marc Elliot Levitt: No employer is listed on the patent.

There are no unusual patterns immediately apparent from the inventor list alone.

Original assignee

The original assignee of US patent 8549339 is Empire Technology Development LLC. Empire Technology Development is a patent monetization firm, a subsidiary of Allied Inventors. It does not appear to have shipped any products embodying the claims of this patent. Its business model is acquiring patents and licensing them. The company is still in operation.

Assignment timeline

2010-02-11 (executed) / recorded 2010-03-02 — Reel 024009/0530

• Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
• Assignor: Andrew Wolfe; Marc Elliot Levitt
• Assignee: EMPIRE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LLC
• Correspondent: Joseph M. Noto, The Marbury Law Group, PLLC, 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive 15th Floor, Reston, VA 20191
• Context: Standard assignment of invention from inventors to the acquiring company.

2018-12-28 (executed) / recorded 2019-01-29 — Reel 048373/0217

• Conveyance: SECURITY INTEREST
• Assignor: EMPIRE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LLC
• Assignee: CRESTLINE DIRECT FINANCE, L.P.
• Correspondent: Michael T. O'Neill, Law Office of Michael T. O'Neill, PC, 5949 Sherry Lane, Suite 1030, Dallas, TX 75225
• Context: The patent was used as collateral in a securitization agreement, a common way for patent-holding companies to raise capital.

2022-12-12 (executed) / recorded 2022-12-16 — Reel 062120/0206

• Conveyance: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY
• Assignor: CRESTLINE DIRECT FINANCE, L.P.
• Assignee: EMPIRE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LLC
• Correspondent: Michael T. O'Neill, Law Office of Michael T. O'Neill, PC, 5949 Sherry Lane, Suite 1030, Dallas, TX 75225. This is the same correspondent from the prior security agreement.
• Context: The security interest was released, returning full control of the patent to Empire Technology Development LLC.

2022-12-12 (executed) / recorded 2023-08-14 — Reel 064575/0934

• Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
• Assignor: EMPIRE TECHNOLGY DEVELOPMENT, LLC
• Assignee: REDSTONE LOGICS, LLC
• Correspondent: Andrew G. Hamill, P.O. Box 630606, Houston, TX 77263
• Context: Transfer from the original patent monetization firm to a new entity, Redstone Logics, LLC, which has since initiated litigation.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8549339
    2010 : Filed by inventors
         : Assigned to Empire Technology Development LLC
    2013 : Patent issued
    2019 : Security interest to Crestline Direct Finance
    2022 : Security interest released
         : Assigned to Redstone Logics LLC
    2023 : First infringement suit filed by Redstone Logics

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The final assignment is from Empire Technology Development LLC, a known monetization firm, to Redstone Logics, LLC (Reel 064575/0934). Redstone Logics, LLC was formed in Texas in December 2022, the same month as the assignment, and has no known products. Litigation records confirm it is an assertion entity.

2. Known asserter in the chain — present. Redstone Logics, LLC, the current assignee, is a known patent asserter. It began filing infringement lawsuits in October 2023. Unified Patents has identified Redstone Logics as an NPE and has filed an Inter Partes Review (IPR2025-00085) against this patent.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Michael T. O'Neill of Dallas, TX, acted as the correspondent for both the security agreement to Crestline (Reel 048373/0217) and the release from Crestline (Reel 062120/0206), suggesting a consistent legal team managing the financial transactions for the patent-holding entity.

4. Cascading transfers — not present. The transfers are separated by several years.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — present. The assignment to Redstone Logics, LLC was executed on December 12, 2022 (recorded August 14, 2023). The first lawsuits asserting this patent were filed by Redstone Logics in October 2023, approximately 10 months after the transfer was executed. This fits the pattern of transferring a patent to a special-purpose assertion vehicle shortly before launching a litigation campaign.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no evidence of bankruptcy proceedings for any assignee in the chain.

7. Privateering — unclear. Empire Technology Development acquires patents from various sources, so it is not a classic case of an operating company spinning out patents to assert against its own competitors.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent has not been transferred to any known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The ownership chain shows a clear and deliberate transfer from one non-practicing entity (Empire Technology Development LLC) to a newly-formed LLC (Redstone Logics, LLC) for the explicit purpose of litigation. This is evidenced by the assignment to Redstone Logics (Reel 064575/0934) occurring less than a year before the first infringement lawsuits were filed. The current owner is a known asserter with no products, fitting the classic NPE model.

Verification of the assignment history can be performed at the USPTO Patent Assignment Search page.