How does the USPTO uniquely assign a patent to an owner

Question

Next to a patent, there is the inventor's name and assignee name. But one's name is not unique. How does the USPTO uniquely identifies an owner of a patent? Does it require the owner's SSN? What about foreign entities?

Answer 1

There is not a unique identifier from the USPTO. And this does sometimes create some issues. It does not require a SSN, EIN, or any other unique identifier from the inventor or assignee.

Here is an example of the "InventorBag" element you receive from the USPTO API:

"inventorBag": [
  {
    "firstName": "",
    "lastName": "",
    "inventorNameText": "",
    "correspondenceAddressBag": [
        {
            "cityName": "",
            "countryCode": "",
            "postalCode": "",
            "nameLineOneText": "",
            "countryName": "",
            "addressLineOneText": "",
            "addressLineTwoText": "",
            "postalAddressCategory": "postal"
        },
        {
            "cityName": "",
            "countryCode": "",
            "nameLineOneText": "",
            "countryName": "",
            "postalAddressCategory": "residence"
        }
    ]
}

Here is an example response from the Assignments API:

{
  "count": 1,
  "patentFileWrapperDataBag": [
    {
      "assignmentBag": [
        {
          "assignmentReceivedDate": "2019-03-29",
          "assignorBag": [
            {
              "executionDate": "2019-03-28",
              "assignorName": "LAST1, FIRST1 MIDDLE1"
            },
            {
              "executionDate": "2019-03-28",
              "assignorName": "LAST2, FIRST2 MIDDLE2"
            }
          ],
          "frameNumber": 123,
          "pageNumber": 3,
          "reelNumber/frameNumber": "012345/0123",
          "assignmentRecordedDate": "2019-03-29",
          "conveyanceText": "ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS).",
          "assigneeBag": [
            {
              "assigneeAddress": {
                "cityName": "",
                "geographicRegionCode": "",
                "postalCode": "",
                "addressLineOneText": ""
              },
              "assigneeNameText": ""
            }
          ],
          "assignmentMailedDate": "2019-03-30",
          "reelNumber": 12345,
          "correspondenceAddress": [
            {
              "addressLineOneText": "",
              "correspondentNameText": "",
              "addressLineTwoText": ""
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "applicationNumberText": "18123456"
    }
  ],
  "requestIdentifier": "f129605a-3456-4b59-98a8-82f7f7c45678"
}

There are sometimes issues that arise when Names do not exactly match between the Inventor Name in the Application Data Sheet (ADS - the 'official' metadata submitted with the application), and the Inventor Name on the Assignment. Similarly, there may be issues with Exact matching between the Assignee Name and the Assignee's Name as it is recorded in the Power of Attorney. These differences may be as small as a single character difference (e.g., "Company, LLC" =/= "Company LLC"). That can hold up processing of documents, require new PoAs to be signed, require new Assignments to be signed, etc.

This also makes it very difficult to track assignments. I believe there was an RFC that the USPTO issued like a year or so ago about how to handle this.