Patent 9133837

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. ? · recorded 2008-04-24 · reel 020910/0263 · Assignment

    SPIELMAN, JR., MICHAEL ANTHONY; ANDERSON, MARK DAVIDCATERPILLAR INC.

    initial assignment from inventors

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

  • Mark David Anderson (Employer: Caterpillar Inc.)
  • Michael Anthony Spielman, JR. (Employer: Caterpillar Inc.)

Both inventors were employed by Caterpillar Inc. at the time of filing, as indicated by the immediate assignment of their interest to Caterpillar Inc. on the filing date.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Their primary line of business involves designing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling machinery and engines, along with providing financial services. The patent describes a method for controlling hydraulic systems in construction machines with hydraulically controlled implements, a direct application for Caterpillar's product lines, such as excavators. Caterpillar Inc. is currently an active, operating, publicly traded company (NYSE: CAT).

Assignment timeline

  • 2008-03-31 to 2008-04-10 (executed) / recorded 2008-04-24 — Reel 020910/0263
    • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
    • Assignor: SPIELMAN, JR., MICHAEL ANTHONY; ANDERSON, MARK DAVID
    • Assignee: CATERPILLAR INC., ILLINOIS
    • Correspondent: Not specified in provided data.
    • Context: Initial assignment from inventors to the corporate assignee at the time of patent application filing.

The USPTO Assignment Center currently shows only this initial assignment from the inventors to Caterpillar Inc. as recorded for US Patent 9133837.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9133837
    2008 : Filed and assigned to Caterpillar Inc.
    2015 : Issued to Caterpillar Inc.

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the inventors to Caterpillar Inc., an operating company that manufactures products related to the patent.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Caterpillar Inc. is not identified as a known patent asserter (NPE) in public lists.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. There is only one assignment event recorded, and the correspondent information for that event is not specified in the provided data.
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is only one recorded assignment.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. There is no recorded litigation, and only one initial assignment.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. Caterpillar Inc. is an active, operating company and there is no indication of bankruptcy or patent sales in such proceedings.
  7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE for assertion on behalf of an operating company.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently assigned to Caterpillar Inc., an operating company, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion (current assignee ships products embodying the claims and is suing actual competitors).
This verdict is based on the sole recorded assignment (Reel 020910/0263, recorded 2008-04-24), which shows the patent was initially assigned from the inventors to Caterpillar Inc., a prominent operating company in the heavy machinery sector. There are no subsequent assignments to any shell entities or known NPEs, nor is there any indication of litigation or other NPE-related activities. The patent's subject matter directly relates to Caterpillar Inc.'s core business of manufacturing construction and mining equipment that utilizes hydraulic systems.

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

Generated 5/27/2026, 12:45:48 PM