Assignment history

Inventors

• Carlos Alberto Pérez Lafuente (Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL)

Original assignee

Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL. The patent describes a "method and system for monitoring a mobile station presence in a special area," suggesting a focus on telecommunication services and potentially location-based billing or content delivery. It is unclear if Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL shipped a product embodying the claims based solely on the patent text.

Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL is a Spanish company. The information available about "Affirma Consulting" (with two 'f's) indicates it is a technology consulting firm specializing in Mobile, Cloud, Business Intelligence, SharePoint, Technology Infrastructure, Custom Development, Visual Design, and Staffing, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Bellevue, WA, USA. This "Affirma Consulting" focuses on providing technology solutions and IT services. It is unclear if Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL (the original assignee of the patent) is the same entity or related to "Affirma Consulting" as described in the search results. Without further clarification, it is difficult to definitively state if the original assignee shipped a product embodying the claims or their current status, given the potential ambiguity between "Afirma" and "Affirma."

Assignment timeline

• 2014-04-01 (executed) / recorded 2014-04-01 — Reel 032224/0748

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: PEREZ LAFUENTE, CARLOS ALBERTO
  • Assignee: AFIRMA CONSULTING & TECHNOLOGIES, S.L.
  • Correspondent: AFIRMA CONSULTING & TECHNOLOGIES, S.L., AVENIDA DE EUROPA, 26, ATICA 5, EDIF. 7, 28224 POZUELO DE ALARCON, MADRID, ES
  • Context: Inventor assigned rights to original assignee.

• 2023-07-17 (executed) / recorded 2023-08-01 — Reel 059955/0648

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: AFIRMA CONSULTING & TECHNOLOGIES SL
  • Assignee: AVANT LOCATION TECHNOLOGIES LLC
  • Correspondent: Daniel P. De La Cruz, DE LA CRUZ & CUTLER, P.A., 1000 SOUTH FEDERAL HIGHWAY, SUITE 200, BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33435
  • Context: Transfer to asserter.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8738040
    2007 : Filed by Afirma Consulting
    2014 : Inventor assigned to Afirma
         : Patent granted
    2023 : Assigned to Avant Location Tech

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The transfer from AFIRMA CONSULTING & TECHNOLOGIES SL to AVANT LOCATION TECHNOLOGIES LLC (reel 059955/0648, executed 2023-07-17 / recorded 2023-08-01) suggests a shell entity. The name "Avant Location Technologies LLC" with "Technologies LLC" is a common naming convention for licensing-only entities.
2. Known asserter in the chain — unclear. While "Avant Location Technologies LLC" appears to be an asserting entity based on its name and the nature of the transfer, it does not immediately match the provided list of high-frequency plaintiffs without further cross-referencing against RPX or Unified Patents data.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. The correspondent for the first assignment is the assignee itself (Afirma Consulting & Technologies, S.L.), while the second assignment has Daniel P. De La Cruz of DE LA CRUZ & CUTLER, P.A. (reel 059955/0648). There is no recurrence of the same correspondent on these two records.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two recorded assignments, spanning a period of nine years between the first and second. This does not indicate multiple consecutive transfers in a short timeframe.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. Litigation has been filed for this patent, with cases in the Texas Northern, Western, and Eastern District Courts in 2024 and 2025. The most recent assignment to Avant Location Technologies LLC was executed on 2023-07-17 and recorded on 2023-08-01 (reel 059955/0648). This transfer occurred within 6 months of some of the earliest filed cases (e.g., in 2024). This timeline suggests a pre-litigation transfer pattern.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication in the assignment records that the original assignee, Afirma Consulting & Technologies SL, filed for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. There is no publicly available information in the assignment records or the patent text to suggest privateering.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain ends with Avant Location Technologies LLC, which is not a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence (2+ strong signals)

The transfer of the patent to Avant Location Technologies LLC (reel 059955/0648, executed 2023-07-17 / recorded 2023-08-01), combined with the "LLC" naming convention and the proximity of this assignment to the commencement of litigation in 2024, strongly indicates an NPE entity. The "shell-entity transfer" and "pre-litigation transfer" patterns are present.

Verification: USPTO Patent Assignment Search