Assignment history

Inventors

Farbod Michael Raam (Seagate Technology LLC)

Original assignee

The original assignee, Seagate Technology LLC, is a major operating company in the data storage industry, primarily manufacturing hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). They ship products embodying the claims of US9069703, which relates to SSD controllers. Seagate Technology LLC is currently an active, operating company.

Assignment timeline

• 2014-11-06 (executed) / recorded 2014-11-06 — Reel 032856/0031
  • Conveyance: Termination and Release of Security Interest
  • Assignor: DEUTSCHE BANK AG NEW YORK BRANCH, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
  • Assignee: LSI CORPORATION, AGERE SYSTEMS LLC
  • Correspondent: LSI Corporation Legal Department, Milpitas, CA.
  • Context: Internal reorg/Release of security interest
• 2015-01-21 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-21 — Reel 033336/0400
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: LSI CORPORATION
  • Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
  • Correspondent: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Scotts Valley, CA. This correspondent also appears on the next entry.
  • Context: Re-acquisition of patent
• 2015-01-22 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-22 — Reel 033336/0402
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: LSI CORPORATION
  • Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
  • Correspondent: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Scotts Valley, CA. This correspondent also appeared on the previous entry.
  • Context: Re-acquisition of patent

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9069703
    2012 : Filed by Seagate Technology LLC
    2014 : Security Interest to LSI Corp
    2015 : Assigned to Seagate Technology LLC
         : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The assignees (Seagate Technology LLC, LSI Corporation, Agere Systems LLC) are all known operating companies in the technology sector.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. None of the entities in the assignment chain (Seagate Technology LLC, LSI Corporation, Agere Systems LLC, Deutsche Bank AG) are recognized as known patent asserters or Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) from public lists such as RPX or Unified Patents.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. The correspondent "SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Scotts Valley, CA" appears on two consecutive assignments (Reel 033336/0400 and Reel 033336/0402), indicating internal handling of the patent transfer.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. While there are two assignments to Seagate in quick succession (January 21 and January 22, 2015), they are from the same assignor (LSI Corporation) to the same assignee (Seagate Technology LLC) with the same correspondent, suggesting a single transaction or an administrative clarification rather than a chain of transfers to different entities.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There is no known litigation involving US9069703, so a pre-litigation transfer cannot be identified.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. The transfers do not appear to be associated with any bankruptcy proceedings.
7. Privateering — not present. There is no evidence from the assignment records or other sources to suggest this patent was transferred to an NPE for assertion on behalf of an operating company.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is currently assigned to Seagate Technology LLC, an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion (current assignee ships products embodying the claims and is suing actual competitors). The patent was originally assigned to Seagate Technology LLC, a known operating company. The recorded assignments show a release of security interest to LSI Corporation and then subsequent assignment back to Seagate Technology LLC (Reel 033336/0400, Reel 033336/0402). There are no shell entities or known NPEs in the chain, and the patent remains with an operating company.
Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/