Assignment history

Inventors

• Brad THOMAS: Employed by Vermeer Manufacturing Co.
• Louis Hartke: Employed by Vermeer Manufacturing Co.
• Greg Langenfeld: Employed by Vermeer Manufacturing Co.
• Matt Hutchinson: Employed by Vermeer Manufacturing Co.

All named inventors appear to have been employed by the original assignee, Vermeer Manufacturing Co., at the time of filing, as indicated by the initial assignment from the inventors to the company. There are no immediate patterns suggesting inventors departing the original assignee within 12 months of filing based on the provided data.

Original assignee

The original assignee, as listed on the issued patent and in the initial assignment, is Vermeer Manufacturing Co.
Vermeer Manufacturing Co. is a company that designs, manufactures, and sells industrial and agricultural equipment, including compact utility loaders and other tool carriers, which aligns with the subject matter of the patent. This indicates they ship products embodying the claims.
As of today's date, 2026-07-01, Vermeer Manufacturing Co. appears to be an active operating company, as evidenced by its involvement in various litigations related to this patent family, including PTAB cases and district court cases.

Assignment timeline

• 2015-05-04 to 2015-05-18 (executed) / recorded 2015-05-20 — Reel 035676/0246
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: LANGENFELD, GREG; THOMAS, BRAD; HARTKE, LOUIS; HUTCHINSON, MATT
  • Assignee: VERMEER MANUFACTURING COMPANY, IOWA
  • Correspondent: KOPF, BRIAN P. (Attorney), KOPF, BRIAN P., 11225 HUBER LANE, KNOXVILLE, IA 50138.
  • Context: Transfer of inventor's interest to the corporate assignee.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9321386
    2015 : Inventors assigned to Vermeer Mfg Co
    2016 : Patent issued to Vermeer Mfg Co
    2017 : First litigation filed
    2024 : New litigation in TX
    2025 : IPRs filed by Kubota

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The only recorded assignment is from the individual inventors to Vermeer Manufacturing Company, a known operating company.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Vermeer Manufacturing Company is an operating company, not a known NPE from public lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. There is only one assignment recorded, so no recurrence can be observed within this specific patent's assignment chain. The correspondent, Brian P. Kopf, acted for the operating company.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The assignment from inventors to Vermeer Manufacturing Co. was recorded on 2015-05-20, prior to the patent's issuance on 2016-04-26. The first identified litigation against this patent family was filed in the Iowa Southern District Court (case/4:17-cv-00076) sometime before the current date, with a priority date of 2015-02-20, but the filing date of the specific lawsuit is not provided in the legal events snippet. The Texas Northern District Court case (case/4:24-cv-00799) was filed in 2024. The PTAB cases (IPR2025-00168, IPR2025-00167, IPR2025-00169) were filed in 2025. Given the dates, the original assignment occurred well before any public litigation records available.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication that Vermeer Manufacturing Co. has filed for bankruptcy or that the patent was transferred in such proceedings.
7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence of a transfer to an NPE for assertion on Vermeer's behalf. Vermeer appears to be directly involved in the litigation.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent remains with Vermeer Manufacturing Co., and the litigation records indicate active assertion, not neutralization by a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion.
The patent's ownership has remained with Vermeer Manufacturing Co., an active operating company that manufactures equipment related to the patent's claims. The recorded assignment is a standard transfer from the inventors to their employer. The current litigation indicates that Vermeer Manufacturing Co. is actively asserting its patent rights, rather than having transferred them to a non-practicing entity.

USPTO Assignment Center search page for verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/patent/9321386