Patent 8738103

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. 2007-02-19 · reel 019313/0501 · Assignment

    BALIARDA, CARLES PUENTE; ILARIO, JORDI; MUMBRU, JOSEPFRACTUS, S.A.

    Correspondent: · ROTHWELL, FIGG, ERNST & MANBECK

    transfer-from-inventors-to-company

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.

✓ Generated

Inventors

  • Carles Puente Baliarda: Fractus S.A.
  • Josep Mumbru: Fractus S.A.
  • Jordi Ilario: Fractus S.A.

All inventors appear to have been employed by Fractus S.A. at the time of filing. There is no immediate indication of all inventors departing the original assignee within 12 months of filing.

Original assignee

The original assignee, Fractus S.A., is a technology company specializing in antenna design and manufacturing. Fractus S.A. has shipped products embodying antenna technology, and their primary line of business is the design and licensing of antenna technology. Fractus S.A. is currently an operating company.

Assignment timeline

  • 2007-02-19 (executed) / recorded 2007-02-19 — Reel 019313/0501
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: BALIARDA, CARLES PUENTE; ILARIO, JORDI; MUMBRU, JOSEP
    • Assignee: FRACTUS, S.A.
    • Correspondent: ROTHWELL, FIGG, ERNST & MANBECK, P.C.
    • Context: Transfer from inventors to original assignee.

The USPTO Patent Assignment Search shows no further assignments for US patent 8738103 beyond the initial assignment from the inventors to Fractus S.A.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8738103
    2006 : Filed by Fractus SA
    2007 : Assigned to Fractus SA (inventors to company)
    2014 : Issued
    2020 : First infringement suit filed (TCL)
    2022 : Second infringement suit filed (BLU)
    2023 : IPR petition filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The patent remains with Fractus S.A., an operating company that develops and licenses antenna technology.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Fractus S.A. is an operating company, although they engage in extensive patent assertion. No known NPEs are in the assignment chain.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Only one assignment from the inventors to Fractus S.A. is recorded, and there are no subsequent assignments to evaluate for repeat correspondents.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. The initial assignment from the inventors to Fractus S.A. occurred in 2007, significantly before the first known infringement suit in 2020.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Fractus S.A. remains an active operating company.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While Fractus S.A. is an operating company, its extensive litigation activity could suggest a privateering model where it asserts patents against competitors on behalf of itself or other entities. However, without further evidence (e.g., SEC filings detailing licensing agreements or specific court findings), this remains speculative.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently owned by Fractus S.A.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent is currently owned by Fractus S.A., an operating company that develops and licenses antenna technology. Fractus S.A. has actively asserted this patent in infringement suits against other technology companies (e.g., in cases 2:22-cv-00412 and 2:22-cv-00413), indicating an operating-company assertion model.

USPTO Assignment Center Search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 9:06:00 PM