Patent 9560177

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 (3)

Asserters network →

Structured records extracted from the assignment-history narrative below. Each entity links to its full ownership-network profile.

  1. 2023-12-13 · recorded 2023-12-22 · reel 066124/0752 · Assignment

    NEC CORPORATIONNEC ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD.

    Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN · W&H Global Law Group

    Internal reorg

  2. 2024-01-18 · recorded 2024-01-27 · reel 066376/0276 · Assignment

    NEC ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD.IP WAVE PTE. LTD.

    Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN · W&H Global Law Group

    Transfer-to-asserter

  3. 2024-03-05 · recorded 2024-06-27 · reel 067944/0332 · Assignment

    IP WAVE PTE. LTD.CLOUD BYTE LLC.

    Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN · W&H Global Law Group

    Transfer-to-asserter

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

  • Masaharu Morimoto (NEC Corp)

No unusual patterns noted based on available information.

Original assignee

NEC Corp. It is unclear from the patent text whether NEC Corp. shipped a product embodying the claims. NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation. NEC Corporation is currently operating.

Assignment timeline

  • 2023-12-13 (executed) / recorded 2023-12-22 — Reel 066124/0752

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: NEC CORPORATION
    • Assignee: NEC ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD.
    • Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN, W&H Global Law Group, 608 SW 2nd Ave, Suite 600, Portland OR 97204
    • Context: Internal reorg

  • 2024-01-18 (executed) / recorded 2024-01-27 — Reel 066376/0276

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: NEC ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD.
    • Assignee: IP WAVE PTE LTD.
    • Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN, W&H Global Law Group, 608 SW 2nd Ave, Suite 600, Portland OR 97204. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Transfer-to-asserter (likely)

  • 2024-03-05 (executed) / recorded 2024-06-27 — Reel 067944/0332

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: IP WAVE PTE LTD.
    • Assignee: CLOUD BYTE LLC.
    • Correspondent: KEVIN K. CHEN, W&H Global Law Group, 608 SW 2nd Ave, Suite 600, Portland OR 97204. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Transfer-to-asserter (likely)

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9560177
    2016 : Filed by NEC Corp
    2017 : Issued
    2023 : Assigned to NEC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
    2024 : Assigned to IP WAVE PTE LTD
         : Assigned to CLOUD BYTE LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — present. IP WAVE PTE LTD. and CLOUD BYTE LLC are likely shell entities. IP WAVE PTE LTD. is a common form for intellectual property holding companies. Cloud Byte LLC has no obvious product presence and its address is associated with a registered agent service based on common patterns, and the transfer from a known operating company to this entity.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — unclear. While Cloud Byte LLC is the current assignee, it is not explicitly listed on widely known public NPE lists such as RPX or Unified Patents. However, Unified Patents records two litigation cases in the Texas Eastern District Court and an IPR filing against this patent. This strongly suggests assertion activity, even if Cloud Byte LLC isn't on a general NPE list.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. KEVIN K. CHEN of W&H Global Law Group is the correspondent for all three recorded assignments (Reel 066124/0752, Reel 066376/0276, and Reel 067944/0332).
  4. Cascading transfers — present. There are three consecutive assignments within a short period: 2023-12-13 to 2024-01-18 to 2024-03-05.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — present. The assignment to CLOUD BYTE LLC was executed on 2024-03-05 and recorded on 2024-06-27. Unified Patents records a US case filed in the Texas Eastern District Court (case 2:24-cv-00637). While the exact filing date of this specific case isn't provided in the Google Patents legal events, the timeline of the assignment preceding the litigation aligns with this pattern.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No indication of bankruptcy for the original assignee, NEC Corp.
  7. Privateering — unclear. While the patent has moved from an operating company to what appear to be licensing entities, there is no direct evidence (e.g., SEC filings) to confirm privateering activity where NEC Corp. is secretly funding the assertion.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain does not terminate at a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

This verdict is based on multiple strong signals: the presence of apparent shell entities (IP WAVE PTE LTD. and CLOUD BYTE LLC) in the assignment chain, the repeated appearance of the same correspondent attorney, KEVIN K. CHEN, the cascading transfers within a short timeframe, and the pre-litigation transfer to Cloud Byte LLC followed by active litigation against the patent.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/20/2026, 12:48:37 AM