Assignment history

Inventors

• David Hirschfeld (ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY LLC)
• Barry Fernando (ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY LLC)
• Mark C. Phelps (ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY LLC)

Original assignee

The original assignee, ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY LLC, appears to be an operating company based on the Google Patents entry showing them as the applicant and current assignee. However, further investigation would be needed to determine if they ship a product embodying the claims and their primary line of business. Their current status, according to Google Patents, is "Active".

Assignment timeline

• 2015-01-06 (executed) / recorded 2015-01-06 — Reel 034645/0312
  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: FERNANDO, BARRY; HIRSCHFELD, DAVID; PHELPS, MARK C.
  • Assignee: ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C.
  • Correspondent: ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C., 20860 N. 24TH AVE., SUITE 110, PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85027
  • Context: Internal reorg (assignment from individual inventors to the company)

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9451001
    2014 : Filed by ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY LLC
    2015 : Assigned to ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C. from inventors
    2016 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Unclear. While the initial assignment is from the inventors to "ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C.", which could be seen as an internal reorg, without further information on the nature of "ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C." (e.g., whether it actively manufactures products or is purely a licensing entity), it is unclear if this represents a shell-entity transfer. The address provided for the correspondent is a physical office, not typically a registered agent service address.

2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C. is not explicitly listed as a known NPE on standard public directories (like those maintained by RPX or Unified Patents) in my training data.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded, so no recurrence is observed. The correspondent listed is "ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C." itself, indicating an internal filing.

4. Cascading transfers — Not present. Only one assignment is recorded.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The assignment was recorded on 2015-01-06. The patent was granted on 2016-09-20. Litigation records from Google Patents show cases filed in 2023 and 2024. The assignment significantly predates the first reported litigation, so this signal is not present in relation to the patent issuance and subsequent litigation.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication in the provided data that the original assignee underwent bankruptcy proceedings.

7. Privateering — Unclear. There is no publicly available information in the provided patent text or Google Patents legal events to suggest privateering.

8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — insufficient data. There is only one recorded assignment for US9451001, which is from the individual inventors to the company ART RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C. prior to the patent's issuance (Reel 034645/0312, executed and recorded 2015-01-06). This typically represents an internal transfer or fulfillment of inventor assignment obligations. There are no subsequent assignments recorded that would indicate a transfer to a known NPE or exhibit other troll-pattern signals.

Verification can be done at the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/