Patent 9982388

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 (1)

Asserters network →

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

  1. 2015-08-12 · recorded 2015-08-17 · reel 036339/0436 · Assignment

    Wich, TorstenVoith Patent GmbH

    Correspondent: Miller, Matthias · Voith Patent GmbH

    Original assignment from inventor to assignee

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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Inventors

Original assignee

The original assignee, Voith Patent GmbH, is a German company that develops and supplies technologies for the paper industry. They ship products embodying the claims, specifically fabrics for paper-making machines. Voith Patent GmbH is currently operating as a subsidiary of Voith Group.

Assignment timeline

  • 2015-08-12 (executed) / recorded 2015-08-17 — Reel 036339/0436
    • Conveyance: Assignment
    • Assignor: Wich, Torsten
    • Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    • Correspondent: Miller, Matthias, Voith Patent GmbH, St. Poeltener Str. 43, Heidenheim Brenz, DE.
    • Context: Original assignment from inventor to assignee.

The USPTO Assignment Center search shows no further recorded assignments for US9982388B2 beyond the initial assignment from the inventor to Voith Patent GmbH.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9982388
    2015 : Filed by Torsten Wich
         : Assigned to Voith Patent GmbH
    2018 : Issued

NPE / troll-pattern signals

  1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The sole recorded assignment is to Voith Patent GmbH, an operating company.
  2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Voith Patent GmbH is not identified as a known asserter.
  3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
  4. Cascading transfers — not present. Only one assignment is recorded.
  5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. There are no recorded transfers subsequent to the initial assignment from the inventor.
  6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No indication of bankruptcy for Voith Patent GmbH or its parent company.
  7. Privateering — unclear. There is no public information to suggest privateering, but without detailed internal company documents or specific reporting, it is difficult to definitively rule out.
  8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains with the original operating company.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The only recorded assignment is from the inventor to Voith Patent GmbH on 2015-08-17 (Reel 036339/0436), which is an operating company in the paper machine industry. There is no evidence of transfer to a shell entity or a known NPE.

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

Generated 5/21/2026, 6:46:57 AM