Assignment history

Inventors

The named inventors are Tai-won Um, Chang-Woo YOON, Kang-Woon HONG, Nam-Kyung Lee, Hyun-woo Lee, and Won Ryu. All inventors list addresses in Daejeon, South Korea. At the time of filing, their employer was the original assignee, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), which is also located in Daejeon. There are no unusual patterns, as the inventors were employees of the research institute that was assigned the patent.

Original assignee

The original assignee is the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). ETRI is a South Korean government-funded, non-profit research institution. It is one of the largest and most prolific patent-generating entities in South Korea. ETRI's primary business is research and development, not manufacturing or selling commercial products. Its business model relies heavily on licensing the intellectual property it develops to operating companies. While ETRI does not ship a product embodying the claims, it is the originating research body and remains an active, prominent global research institute.

Assignment timeline

A search of the USPTO Patent Assignment Center reveals only one recorded assignment for this patent. This indicates the patent has not been sold or transferred since it was originally assigned by the inventors.

• 2012-08-03 (executed) / recorded 2012-08-20 — Reel 028813/0584
  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: Tai-won Um, Chang-Woo YOON, Kang-Woon HONG, Nam-Kyung Lee, Hyun-woo Lee, Won Ryu (The Inventors)
  • Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
  • Correspondent: Cantor Colburn LLP, 20 Church Street, 22nd Floor, Hartford, CT 06103
  • Context: Standard pre-issuance assignment of invention from employees to their employer.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9112934
    2012 : Filed by Inventors
         : Assigned to ETRI
    2015 : Issued to ETRI
    2025 : ETRI files infringement suit

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer: Not present. The patent has not been transferred from the original assignee.
2. Known asserter in the chain: Not present. The only assignee is ETRI, a government research institute. While ETRI does license and assert its patents, it is not typically categorized as a commercial NPE in the same vein as entities like Intellectual Ventures or Marathon Patent Group.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain: Not present. There is only one assignment on record.
4. Cascading transfers: Not present. There have been no subsequent assignments.
5. Pre-litigation transfer: Not present. The patent was not transferred prior to the litigation filed in 2025. The plaintiff, ETRI, has been the owner since 2012.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale: Not present.
7. Privateering: Not present. The original R&D entity is asserting the patent directly.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE): Not present.

Verdict

Insufficient data

The assignment record shows no post-issuance transfers, and the only transaction is the initial assignment from the inventors to their employer, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), in 2012 (Reel 028813/0584). While ETRI has asserted the patent, as a large government-funded research institute, it does not fit the typical profile of a commercial NPE or patent troll. Without any transfer of the patent to a licensing-focused shell entity, there is insufficient evidence to classify this activity as fitting a classic NPE pattern.

Verify at USPTO Patent Assignment Search