Yes, the TBTF Wall Street Banks and other entities like Countrywide applied for and acquired Patent Numbers. Countrywide and Nations Bank assigned their patents to Bank of America according to public records found at the US Patent website.
I think the Patent records leave a trail.
The US Patent Office's online, interactive, user friendly website makes it really easy to follow the trail of HOW systems were set up to handle the huge volume of mortgages and all the clever internal tools the commercial banking industry created/used for derivatives, CDOs, etc.
Here are four search tools from the interactive US Patent website that can be used to track the TBTF US Patents:
1. Search for Patents. If you enter the name of an entity, some of the entity's info at the the US Patent Office shows up.
2. This is my favorite tool. The Patent Assignment Query Menu. The TBTF patents seem to get assigned to others quite frequently, which I will demonstrate below with Countrywide and Bank of America.
Either of the two tools above will provide reference numbers that are either the actual Patent # or a PGPUB# (applications that haven't resulted in a Patent).
There are two tools to search these numbers. They are:
3. When you find a Patent #, you can use this tool to search for the specific Patent
4. In some instances, you will see what are called PGPUB# numbers. These are items that did not result in a Patent. Use this tool to see specifics for a PGPUB# When you open this link, click on the "Publication Number" option, enter the number (they look like this US20100131121)
What I find most interesting about this data is that the NAMES OF THE PEOPLE WHO CREATED the mechanisms to make the computing processes, etc. that enabled the TBTF Banks to process mortgage intake and transfers to other banks at lightening speed.
The "inventors" may well have responded to requests from the TBTFs to "invent' the processes mentioned above.
Are these inventors potential witnesesses?
I THINK THE TBTF PATENT NUMBERS info might provide many needed missing links.
For instance,
COUNTRY WIDE ASSIGNED PATENTS TO BANK OF AMERICA
I used the Patent assignment tool, searched for "Assignor Name" COUNTRYWIDE and got this result. I won't post a screen shot for privacy purposes.
THOSE INTERESTED in tracking down the tools used by the TBTFs to facilitate the GREAT HOUSING HEIST can use the Patent # and Publication # search tools above (numbers 2 and 3) to read the details of each Patent that Countrywide "assigned" to Bank of America.
For instance, the first Patent # listed is 7899741 filed in March, 2007 (or 5 months before the date BoA Acquired Countrywide) and approved on March 1, 2011. The Abstract says, and this is very nuanced and interesting:
ABSTRACT
Loss impact tracking system and method
Methods and systems for assisting analysis of potential gain or loss associated with acquiring property,
and analysis of data related to disaster (such as due to flood, fire, etc.) affected properties with delinquent payments to determine the appropriate equity decision regarding a foreclosure action on one or more liens associated with the property.
Loans and information associated therewith are assigned to one of the status queues that include
a queue for loans eligible for review,
a queue for loans reviewed based on the analysis,
a queue for loans having a certain risk factor associated therewith,
a queue for loans designated for foreclosure,
a queue for loans having a certain lien position associated therewith,
a queue for loans designated for bid-at-sale,
and a queue for loans designated for disposition without any further action by the lender.
Multiple liens associated with a subject property can be displayed and analyzed to facilitate assessment of the loan and recommendations for disposition thereof.
Insurance payment information for disaster-affected underlying properties is displayed and can be taken into account when assessing the loan and formulating recommendations for disposition thereof. (emphasis mine)
I think you will find this fascinating reading. REALLY, REALLY interesting!!!
I found someone else that agrees in this comment to an article about computerized Robo-Signing:
The banks patented every step.
In the USTPO office there are thousands of patented schemes that identify the shadow banking, as if to legitimize the system.
Many researchers feel that there is so much debt ($600 TRILLION, see It Takes a Pillage by Nomi Prins) that they have to continue trading to maintain cash flow. They are even rolling occupied foreclosed properties into short term bonds. Congress has ignored regulating them – probably for fear of the final collapse… Which would ruin the financial future of our heavily invested Congressional leaders and judiciary. Now that would be leveling the playing field.
So true! See
this list of Congress Members favorite investments.
Our paid Congress Members love investing in Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Co,
CitiGroup, and Goldman Sachs.
FOR SOME GOOD NEWS, I highly recommend this article:
Closely-Watched Court Decision Breaks Bad for Wall St. Has A Day of Reckoning Arrived by Bob Swern
For those of you interested IN DIGGING, here are the links of patents ASSIGNED TO OTHERS by the Too Big To Fail or Jail Banks or, in Lehman Brothers case failed:
BANK OF AMERICA - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
MERRILL LYNCH - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
NATIONS BANK - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
LEHMAN BROTHERS - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
This was interesting reading re: Lehman Brothers.
Lehman Brothers assigned a patent, a Tool for estimating a cost of a trade, to Lehman Brothers, Inc. who then assigned the patent to Barclays.
The Lehman Brothers Patent Assignment Details link is absolutely fascinating reading for those interested. It appears that Barclays received the patents as part of the Barclays agrees $1.75bn deal for core Lehman Brothers business
JP MORGAN - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
GOLDMAN SACHS - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
CITIGROUP - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...
MORGAN STANLEY - http://assignments.uspto.gov/...=
Granted, this is huge amount of information.
Many of the Patents are actual products by inventors of durable goods; however, interspersed in these lists of patents we will most likely find the products written by the quants who, since Glass Steagal died, have made Wall Street and the international banking cartels the digital wonders they now are.
Too big to fail, too big to jail, and too complex for journalists to travail.
This is the sort of research project that requires a team of people with the patience to sift through this data, analyze the data, and create JOURNALISM.
Taibbi?