Patent Ownership

Below are documents retrieved from the US Patent Office (PTO) by my lawyer Shawn Pearson. They are a matter of public record and can be obtained by anyone.

The PTO maintains a searchable database of Patent Assignments. It indicates that I have just assigned my interest in the MMP patents to my Equinox Trust. It also indicates that certain patents have been assigned by Charles H Moore to TPL (Technology Properties Limited).

This has created confusion as to the ownership of these patents. I never assigned any patents to TPL.

I did assign 2 patents to iTv, a company for which I developed a microprocessor. They needed to own Intellectual Property in order to obtain financing.

Dan Leckrone (TPL) negotiated my employment agreement which included the reversion of the patents to me in case the business failed. When it did, Leckrone obtained an assignment back to me in February 2002 from Joe Zott, VP of iTv. That document is included here. Leckrone did not then record this assignment with the PTO.

In October 2003 Leckrone filed assignments of 4 patents with the PTO, without my knowledge or consent. These assignments were documented with excerpts from the Commercialization Agreement between TPL and me. I discovered this in July 2008.

If you study the convoluted documents, what was assigned appears to be "rights and entitlements" devolving from the Agreement. That would be an exclusive license to, in turn, license and enforce the patents. Nowhere appear the magic words "entire right, title and interest in" that normally occur in patent assignments. And, in fact, occur in the assignment to me from iTv.

TPL has claimed to own these patents in press releases. I contest this and expect to see ownership clarified in court.