Patent 8780887

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. 2011-08-11 · recorded 2011-09-20 · reel 026935/0450 · Assignment

    Kim, Sun Cheul; Moon, Seong; Hong, Seungwoo; Yoon, Ho Sun; Ryu, Ho YongELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

    Correspondent: · BAE, KIM & LEE IP GROUP

    Original assignment from inventors to employer

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

  • Sun Cheul Kim (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ETRI)
  • Seong Moon (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ETRI)
  • Seungwoo Hong (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ETRI)
  • Ho Sun Yoon (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ETRI)
  • Ho Yong Ryu (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ETRI)

No unusual patterns detected. All inventors appear to have been employed by the original assignee at the time of filing.

Original assignee

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

ETRI is a government-funded research institute in South Korea, focusing on R&D in information and communication technologies. While they primarily engage in research and do not "ship products" in the commercial sense, they develop technologies that are licensed and incorporated into products by other companies. Their primary line of business is R&D in telecommunications and IT. ETRI is currently an operating government-funded research institute.

Assignment timeline

  • 2011-08-11 (executed) / recorded 2011-09-20 — Reel 026935/0450
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: Kim, Sun Cheul; Moon, Seong; Hong, Seungwoo; Yoon, Ho Sun; Ryu, Ho Yong (all inventors)
    • Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    • Correspondent: BAE, KIM & LEE IP GROUP, 11th Fl. Gangnam-daero 372, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-934, Republic of Korea
    • Context: Original assignment from inventors to employer

The USPTO Assignment Center shows no further recorded assignments for US8780887 as of May 29, 2026.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8780887
    2011 : Inventors assigned to ETRI
    2014 : Patent issued to ETRI

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The only assignment on record is from the individual inventors to their employer, ETRI, a government-funded research institute.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. ETRI is not a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. There is only one assignment recorded, so no recurrence can be observed. The correspondent for the initial assignment is BAE, KIM & LEE IP GROUP.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is on record.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While there is litigation listed for this patent on Google Patents (a US case filed in Texas Eastern District Court and a PTAB case), without a more precise date for the initial filing of the litigation, it is unclear if the single assignment from inventors to ETRI was pre-litigation. However, this initial assignment is standard practice for patents originating from employees.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No indication of bankruptcy for ETRI.
  7. Privateering — not present. No evidence to suggest ETRI is engaging in privateering.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to ETRI, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Insufficient data. While the single assignment from the inventors to ETRI is a standard practice and does not, in itself, suggest NPE activity, the USPTO Assignment Center shows no subsequent recorded assignments. Without further assignment records, especially given the "Family has litigation" flags on Google Patents, it is impossible to definitively determine if the patent has moved into the hands of an NPE.

USPTO Assignment Center search page for verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/29/2026, 5:55:55 PM