Assignment history

Inventors

• Mark Zehfuss (Employer: Baby Jogger LLC at the time of filing).

Original assignee

The original assignee was Baby Jogger LLC. Baby Jogger LLC is known for designing and manufacturing strollers and other juvenile products, indicating they shipped products embodying the claims. As of 2026, Baby Jogger operates as a brand under Baby Jogger II LLC, which is part of Newell Brands.

Assignment timeline

• 2009-12-04 (executed) / recorded 2014-09-16 — Reel 033748/0266

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: ZEHFUSS, MARK
  • Assignee: DYNAMIC BRANDS, LLC
  • Correspondent: R. Andrew Patty, III, THE LAW OFFICE OF R. ANDREW PATTY, III, LLC, 13745 YOUNGSEND RD., UNIT 100, Midlothian, VA 23112.
  • Context: Transfer of inventor's interest to an intermediate entity.

• 2012-04-20 (executed) / recorded 2014-09-16 — Reel 033748/0374

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: DYNAMIC BRANDS, LLC
  • Assignee: Baby Jogger, LLC
  • Correspondent: R. Andrew Patty, III, THE LAW OFFICE OF R. ANDREW PATTY, III, LLC, 13745 YOUNGSEND RD., UNIT 100, Midlothian, VA 23112. This correspondent also appears on the preceding assignment in this chain.
  • Context: Transfer from intermediate entity to the original operating company.

• 2026-01-23 (executed) / recorded 2026-01-26 — Reel 059905/0164

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Baby Jogger, LLC
  • Assignee: BABY JOGGER II, LLC
  • Correspondent: Andrea L. Tran, NEWELL BRANDS INC., 6655 PEACHTREE DUNWOODY ROAD, NE, ATLANTA, GA 30328.
  • Context: Internal reorganization/transfer within the parent corporate structure (Newell Brands).

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 8955869
    2008 : Priority date
    2009 : Inventor to Dynamic Brands LLC
    2014 : Application filed
         : Dynamic Brands to Baby Jogger LLC
    2015 : Patent issued
    2026 : Baby Jogger to Baby Jogger II LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — unclear. Dynamic Brands, LLC (Assignee on 033748/0266, Assignor on 033748/0374) appears to be an intermediate entity, but there is no definitive information to classify it as a shell entity for licensing purposes without further investigation into its business activities. Baby Jogger II, LLC (Assignee on 059905/0164) is an active operating subsidiary of Newell Brands.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. None of the assignors or assignees match known public NPE lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. R. Andrew Patty, III of THE LAW OFFICE OF R. ANDREW PATTY, III, LLC, appears as the correspondent for both the 2014-09-16 assignments (Reel 033748/0266 and 033748/0374). While recurring within this chain, it is not possible to determine from the provided information if this correspondent appears on NPE assertion lists or is associated with other tracked patents.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are two transfers on the same day (2014-09-16) involving Dynamic Brands, LLC. However, these appear to be part of a single chain of title from the inventor through an intermediate entity to the operating company, rather than multiple consecutive transfers through chained LLCs to hide ownership.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. The district court litigation cases (1:24-cv-00725 and 1:24-cv-11582) were filed in 2024. The latest assignment to Baby Jogger II, LLC occurred in January 2026 (Reel 059905/0164). This transfer happened after the noted litigation filings in 2024. Therefore, this transfer does not directly precede the first infringement suit involving this patent. Without the exact filing dates of the 2024 suits, and specific details about the 2026 transfer, it's unclear if any transfer in the chain was pre-litigation.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication of any assignor filing for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence of an operating company transferring the patent to an NPE for assertion against competitors.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain does not terminate at any known defensive aggregators.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent remains with an operating company, Baby Jogger II, LLC, which is part of Newell Brands. The assignment from the inventor to Dynamic Brands, LLC, and then to Baby Jogger, LLC, (Reel 033748/0266 and 033748/0374) appears to be a standard chain of title establishment. The most recent assignment to Baby Jogger II, LLC (Reel 059905/0164) is an internal transfer within the corporate structure of Newell Brands, an operating company. The active litigation suggests assertion by the operating company against competitors.

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