I am trying to track patent #20080310908. How do i find out if it was sold, to who and for how much? I have been searching for a long time and don't know where to go to find this info.
1 Answer
First, US 2008/0310908 is a patent application, not a patent. This is important for reasons that I touch on at the end.
The best place to check ownership is on the USPTO's assignments database. Typically, though not necessarily, patent assignments are registered pretty promptly, as the ramifications for not doing so can be dire.
By looking at US 2008/0310908 (that is, publication number = 20080310908), you can see that this was assigned from the inventors to Metcom Plastics International Inc of Canada on 20 June 2008. No further assignments are registered, so we might assume that no further assignments took place. Though there is no way to be sure.
The amount is not typically public, so there is no real way to find this out.
In any case, the current ownership is likely moot, as this application was abandoned before grant in 2012 (which can be seen at USPTO PAIR).
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“No further assignments are registered, so we can assume that no further assignments took place.“ - I disagree, having dealt with patent trolls I can tell you that some assignments are kept secret for some time or done through corporations used only to hide the owner. You could also mention that the “for how much“ is not public record and therefore normally can't be found.– user18033May 8, 2017 at 10:09
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@DonQuiKong I've tempered my answer a bit, but I think my principle still stands. In the bulk of cases without the involvement of dubious parties, I would say assignments are appropriately registered.– MacaMay 8, 2017 at 11:31
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I don't know any numbers, but I'd agree that probably most are registered. It's just important to note that not all are / they don't have to be registered timely.– user18033May 8, 2017 at 12:59