Patent 8863319

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. 2013-02-20 · reel 029706/0677 · Assignment of Assignors Interest

    KNIGHT, ROBERT T.BRAINGUARD TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

    Correspondent: MARK A. GOODMAN

    transfer-from-inventor-to-original-assignee

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

The named inventor for US patent 8863319 is Robert T. Knight. [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319] At the time of filing, Robert T. Knight was a professor of psychology and neurology at UC Berkeley and the founder of Brainguard Technologies Inc.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Brainguard Technologies Inc. [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319].

Brainguard Technologies Inc. is a startup focused on designing biomechanics-aware protective gear, primarily helmets, to mitigate traumatic brain injuries, particularly those caused by rotational and shear forces. They have developed prototype helmets for various sports including bicycling, baseball, football, hockey, and snow sports. The company states its mission is to enable exceptional helmet performance that protects the brain without adding extra weight and to use the best available technology to prevent, not just diagnose, TBI damage. While they have created prototypes and conducted testing, including anticipated official testing by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, their helmets were not expected to be available until fall 2021 at the earliest. Their products are "currently being developed" as of a recent update.

Based on the available information, Brainguard Technologies Inc. appears to be an operating company engaged in research, development, and eventual commercialization of protective helmet technology. Their current status is operating.

Assignment timeline

There is one recorded assignment for US8863319 on the USPTO Assignment Center.

  • 2013-02-20 (executed) / recorded 2013-02-20 — Reel 029706/0677
    • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
    • Assignor: KNIGHT, ROBERT T.
    • Assignee: BRAINGUARD TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    • Correspondent: MARK A. GOODMAN, ESQ.
    • Context: Transfer from inventor to original assignee.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8863319
    2012 : Filed by Brainguard
    2013 : Assigned to Brainguard Tech
    2014 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the individual inventor, Robert T. Knight, to Brainguard Technologies, Inc., the original operating company. There is no evidence of a transfer to a licensing-only LLC. [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319]

  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Brainguard Technologies, Inc. is not identified on public NPE lists as a known high-frequency plaintiff. While they are currently asserting the patent in district court against Revelyst Sales LLC [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319], there is no indication that Brainguard itself is primarily a patent assertion entity (PAE) based on the available information.

  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Mark A. Goodman, Esq., is listed as the correspondent for the single assignment recorded. Without additional assignments for this patent or information about other patents tracked on this site that he has recorded for, it is not possible to determine if he is a "repeat correspondent" in a pattern indicative of NPE activity. [cite: 029706/0677]

  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is only one assignment recorded for this patent.

  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The only assignment occurred in 2013, prior to the patent's issuance in 2014, and well before the first infringement suit filed in 2024. [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319, 029706/0677]

  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication that Brainguard Technologies, Inc. has undergone bankruptcy proceedings or that the patent was acquired via a bankruptcy sale.

  7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence in the provided data or public records suggesting that Brainguard Technologies, Inc. is asserting this patent on behalf of another operating company.

  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The verdict is "Operating-company assertion" with high confidence. The sole assignment recorded is from the inventor, Robert T. Knight, to Brainguard Technologies, Inc. (Reel 029706/0677), which is the original assignee and appears to be an operating company engaged in the development and commercialization of biomechanics-aware protective helmets. The company is actively developing products and is the plaintiff in the current district court litigation involving this patent [cite: The Google Patents page for US8863319].

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

Generated 5/19/2026, 6:47:20 PM