what happens to patents when the assignee no longer exists?


I'm doing some research on a company that no longer exists and was wondering what happens to their patents. The company contained by question is Rollerball International, I cannot find any records of what happened to them really, other after the fact that trading got shut down on them after failure to report to the SEC
Best Answer:
Thats a tough question I assume the family will have rights to any royalities.I am unsure .
The patent then become property of the assignee's heirs. EDIT In that valise the are many thing that could have happen to the patents: they could have been transfered, sold, or freshly forgotten until expiration, and so on. The best thing you can do it's to get the patent numbers and poke about the records at the Patent Office, then you'll learn if the patent expired or belong to someone else. http://www.uspto.gov/
The exclusive rights rights should have been transferred to either the creditors or to whoever bought them when the company dissolved. If the company no longer exists and the patent haven't been reassigned, it's very likely that an annuity clearance has been missed and the patent is no longer surrounded by force anyway.
Its a Design Patent, nearby are no maintenance fees to pay.