Patent 9729693

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.

Active provider: Google · gemini-2.5-flash

Ownership chain (3)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2016-11-08 · recorded 2016-11-10 · reel 038618/0907 · Assignment

    Joseph MunarettoHuami Inc.

    Correspondent: · BLANK ROME

    initial assignment from inventor to corporate entity

  2. 2020-11-19 · reel 054479/0808 · Change of Name

    Huami Inc.ZEPP, INC.

    Correspondent: · BLANK ROME

    corporate name change

  3. 2021-02-03 · reel 055375/0614 · Corrective Assignment

    Huami Inc.ZEPP, INC.

    Correspondent: · BLANK ROME

    corrective assignment to update previous name change record

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

The named inventor is Joseph Munaretto. At the time of filing, Joseph Munaretto was the assignor to Huami Inc., indicating he was likely an employee of Huami Inc. or had an obligation to assign the invention to them.

Original assignee

The original assignee named on the issued patent is Huami Inc. Huami Inc. was primarily in the business of developing and manufacturing smart wearable devices, including fitness trackers and smartwatches. They shipped products embodying claims related to health and fitness tracking, which would include technologies for determining measurement confidence. Huami Inc. subsequently changed its name to Zepp Inc., which is its current operating status.

Assignment timeline

  • 2016-11-08 (executed) / recorded 2016-11-10 — Reel 038618/0907

    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: Joseph Munaretto
    • Assignee: Huami Inc.
    • Correspondent: BLANK ROME LLP, 1800 M Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC, 20036-5807, US. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Initial assignment from inventor to corporate entity.

  • 2020-11-19 (executed) / recorded 2020-11-19 — Reel 054479/0808

    • Conveyance: Change of Name
    • Assignor: HUAMI, INC.
    • Assignee: ZEPP, INC.
    • Correspondent: BLANK ROME LLP, 1800 M Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC, 20036-5807, US. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Corporate name change from Huami Inc. to Zepp Inc.

  • 2021-02-03 (executed) / recorded 2021-02-03 — Reel 055375/0614

    • Conveyance: Corrective Assignment
    • Assignor: HUAMI INC.
    • Assignee: ZEPP, INC.
    • Correspondent: BLANK ROME LLP, 1800 M STREET NW, SUITE 1000, WASHINGTON, DC, 20036-5807, US. This correspondent recurs in this chain.
    • Context: Corrective assignment to update previous name change record.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9729693
    2016 : Filed by Joseph Munaretto
         : Assigned to Huami Inc
    2017 : Issued
    2020 : Huami Inc changed name to Zepp Inc
    2021 : Corrective assignment to Zepp Inc
    2026 : Litigation filed by Zepp Inc

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfers reflect a corporate name change from Huami Inc. to Zepp Inc., both of which are operating companies in the wearable device market.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Zepp Inc. is an operating company and not listed as a known NPE.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Present. BLANK ROME LLP appears as the correspondent for all three recorded assignments in the chain (Reel 038618/0907, Reel 054479/0808, Reel 055375/0614).
  4. Cascading transfers — Not present. The assignments consist of an initial inventor-to-company transfer, followed by a corporate name change and its correction, which do not constitute multiple consecutive transfers through chained LLCs.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — Not present. The last assignment (a corrective one) was recorded on February 3, 2021, which is more than six months prior to the litigation filing date of April 21, 2026.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy proceedings for Huami Inc. or Zepp Inc.
  7. Privateering — Not present. Zepp Inc. is an operating company directly asserting the patent in litigation against a competitor, Oura Health Oy.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The patent is currently held by an operating company, Zepp Inc., which is actively asserting it.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent was originally assigned by the inventor to Huami Inc., an operating company. Huami Inc. subsequently underwent a corporate name change to Zepp Inc., which is also an operating company that manufactures and sells wearable devices. Zepp Inc. is actively asserting this patent against a direct competitor, Oura Health Oy, as indicated by the litigation filed on April 21, 2026. The consistent correspondent (BLANK ROME LLP) across the assignments indicates a stable legal representation for the evolving corporate entity rather than a series of transfers to disparate shell companies.

For verification, see the USPTO Patent Assignment Search results for US9729693: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

Generated 5/30/2026, 12:49:01 AM