Assignment history

Inventors

• Mohammed N. Islam (likely affiliated with Omni Medsci Inc. at the time of filing, as he assigned the patent to them on the application filing date, and he is noted as a founder of Omni MedSci).

Original assignee

Omni Medsci Inc. was founded in Michigan in October 2010 as part of "the Omni family of companies," which focuses on developing and commercializing optical technology from Dr. Islam. While Omni Sciences Inc., another entity within this family, states it develops and brings to market near-infrared and mid-infrared broadband lasers, it is unclear from the available information whether Omni Medsci Inc. itself shipped a product embodying the claims of US9651533. The company, and its successor Omni Medsci LLC, are actively involved in patent litigation, asserting patents related to medical devices, particularly wearables, including US9651533, against various technology companies. Omni Medsci Inc. is currently operating and actively engaged in patent assertion.

Assignment timeline

• 2015-10-06 (executed) / recorded 2017-02-21 — Reel 042211/0007
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: Mohammed N. Islam
  • Assignee: OMNI MEDSCI INC.
  • Correspondent: MICHAEL L. KNAUER, KNAUER IP LAW, PLLC, PO BOX 1581, ANN ARBOR, MI 48106-1581.
  • Context: Original assignment of intellectual property from the inventor to the founding company.
• 2017-02-15 (executed) / recorded 2017-02-21 — Reel 042211/0009
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: OMNI MEDSCI INC.
  • Assignee: OMNI MEDSCI LLC
  • Correspondent: MICHAEL L. KNAUER, KNAUER IP LAW, PLLC, PO BOX 1581, ANN ARBOR, MI 48106-1581. This correspondent also appears on the earlier inventor assignment for this patent.
  • Context: Transfer from a corporation to a limited liability company, commonly for internal restructuring or licensing activities.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9651533
    2015 : Filed by Omni Medsci Inc
    2017 : Assigned to Omni Medsci LLC
         : Issued
    2018 : First infringement suit filed

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — present. The patent was transferred from OMNI MEDSCI INC. to OMNI MEDSCI LLC (Reel 042211/0009, executed 2017-02-15). The "LLC" suffix, combined with the extensive litigation activity reported for Omni MedSci entities and the lack of clear evidence of product sales for this specific patent, indicates a likely shell entity for licensing or assertion purposes.
2. Known asserter in the chain — present. Although "Omni MedSci" is not on the provided explicit list of known NPEs, Omni MedSci, Inc. and Omni Medsci LLC have been identified as frequent plaintiffs in numerous patent infringement lawsuits across multiple US District Courts and have faced multiple PTAB challenges initiated by Unified Patents. This extensive and sustained litigation activity demonstrates a pattern consistent with a patent asserter.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Michael L. Knauer of Knauer IP Law, PLLC is listed as the correspondent on both recorded assignments (Reel 042211/0007 and Reel 042211/0009). This indicates consistent legal representation for the related Omni entities during patent prosecution and assignment recordation.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two recorded assignments for this specific patent.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — present. The assignment from OMNI MEDSCI INC. to OMNI MEDSCI LLC was executed on 2017-02-15 and recorded on 2017-02-21 (Reel 042211/0009). This occurred more than a year before the "First worldwide family litigation filed" event in 2018, as indicated by Google Patents, and precedes specific infringement suits against companies like Apple, Fossil, OnePlus, Oura Health, and Samsung. The transfer occurred prior to the commencement of assertion.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No evidence from the provided sources indicates that the original assignee or any subsequent assignee filed for bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. While the inventor, Dr. Islam, is a university professor and founder of multiple companies, and the patents are being asserted against large tech companies, there is no direct evidence from the provided sources to confirm that Omni Medsci is asserting these patents on behalf of a specific operating company competitor.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent chain does not terminate with a known defensive aggregator. Instead, Unified Patents is listed as a petitioner in several PTAB challenges against Omni MedSci's patents.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence

The high confidence NPE verdict is supported by multiple strong signals: the transfer to a shell LLC (Reel 042211/0009) specializing in intellectual property, Omni MedSci's established pattern of aggressive patent assertion against various operating companies, the use of the same correspondent across multiple assignments (Michael L. Knauer on Reel 042211/0007 and Reel 042211/0009), and the pre-litigation transfer of the patent to the asserting entity (Reel 042211/0009) before the initiation of infringement suits.

USPTO Assignment Center search page: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search by patent number 9651533).