Assignment history

Inventors

• Leo E. Otterbein (Employer at time of filing: Yale University)
• Augustine M. K. Choi (Employer at time of filing: Yale University)
• Brian Scott Zuckerbraun (Employer at time of filing: University of Pittsburgh)

No unusual patterns are observed. The inventors assigned their rights to their respective universities, which is standard practice for academic research. These assignments occurred shortly after the filing of the continuation application in December 2013, which is a common timing for formalizing rights for applications derived from earlier provisional filings.

Original assignee

The entities named on the issued patent are Yale University and University of Pittsburgh.

• Yale University: A private Ivy League research university. It does not ship products embodying the claims in a commercial sense; its primary line of business is education and academic research. Its current status is operating.
• University of Pittsburgh: A public research university. It does not ship products embodying the claims in a commercial sense; its primary line of business is education, academic research, and healthcare. Its current status is operating.

Assignment timeline

• 2014-01-21 (executed) / recorded 2014-01-31 — Reel 032047/0933

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: OTTERBEIN, LEO E.
  • Assignee: YALE UNIVERSITY
  • Correspondent: DUFF, SUZANNE K, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 200 GARDNER STEEL CONFERENCE CTR, PITTSBURGH, PA, US, 15260. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Inventor assignment to employer.

• 2014-01-21 (executed) / recorded 2014-01-31 — Reel 032047/0933

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: CHOI, AUGUSTINE M. K.
  • Assignee: YALE UNIVERSITY
  • Correspondent: DUFF, SUZANNE K, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 200 GARDNER STEEL CONFERENCE CTR, PITTSBURGH, PA, US, 15260. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Inventor assignment to employer.

• 2014-01-22 (executed) / recorded 2014-01-31 — Reel 032047/0936

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: ZUCKERBRAUN, BRIAN SCOTT
  • Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH - OF THE COMMONWEALTH SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • Correspondent: DUFF, SUZANNE K, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 200 GARDNER STEEL CONFERENCE CTR, PITTSBURGH, PA, US, 15260. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
  • Context: Inventor assignment to employer.

• 2015-05-27 (executed) / recorded 2015-05-27 — Reel 032599/0474

  • Conveyance: CONFIRMATORY LICENSE
  • Assignor: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH - OF THE COMMONWEALTH SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • Assignee: NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH), U.S. DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (DHHS), U.S. GOVERNMENT
  • Correspondent: RENEAU, GARY E., NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, 6011 EXECUTIVE BLVD SUITE 325, ROCKVILLE, MD, US, 20852-3804.
  • Context: Confirmatory license to government entity due to federal funding.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9522163
    2002 : Priority filing
    2013 : Application filed
    2014 : Inventors assign to Yale U / U Pitt
    2015 : U Pitt grants license to NIH
    2016 : Patent issued
    2023 : Expired Fee Related

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. All assignees are established universities or a government entity, which are operating/research institutions. There is no indication of transfers to shell entities or licensing-only LLCs.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. None of the listed assignees (Yale University, University of Pittsburgh, National Institutes of Health) are recognized as known patent asserters or NPEs.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Present. Suzanne K Duff from the University of Pittsburgh appears as the correspondent for multiple assignment records (Reel 032047/0933, Reel 032047/0936). This is common for in-house counsel handling inventor assignments to their institution.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. The transfers are from individual inventors to their universities and a subsequent license to a government entity, which are distinct and logical steps within an academic/government research context, not rapid, consecutive transfers typical of NPE chains.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. There is no record of litigation involving this patent, and the recorded assignments occurred during the patent's prosecution phase, well before its issuance in 2016 or its expiration in 2023.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The original assignees (Yale University and University of Pittsburgh) are currently operating institutions and have not filed for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — Not present. The involved entities are academic and governmental, and there is no evidence or indication of privateering activities.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The ownership chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator like RPX or AST.

Verdict

Insufficient data
The ownership chain for US9522163 primarily reflects assignments from inventors to their respective academic institutions and a confirmatory license to a federal agency (NIH) due to federal funding. There are no recorded post-issuance assignments indicating a transfer to any commercial entity or known NPE, nor are there other significant NPE pattern signals present. The patent has also since expired.
USPTO Assignment Center search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search for patent number 9522163).