BlackBerry tops and tails the IAM blog's top 20 most-read stories of 2016
It’s that time of year when an IAM editor’s thoughts turn to happy families, log fires, a nice bottle of Macallan and a cigar or two. Thus, ever-so-reluctantly (!), this blog will now be taking its annual Christmas and New Year break. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s been one hell of a 12 months; in the UK, in Europe more widely, in North America and Asia. So much has happened and a few days to think about it all and to put it into some kind of context will be very welcome.
Before we go, though, a big thank-you to each and every one of this blog’s loyal readers. Our Google analytics stats tell me that in 2016 we have had 114,649 unique users who between them have visited us 226,574 times for an average period of one minute 47 seconds. The top 10 countries from which our readers are drawn are: (1) the US; (2) the UK; (3) Germany; (4) Canada; (5) India; (6) Japan; (7) the Netherlands; (8) South Korea; (9) China; and (10) France. The top 10 cities are: (1) New York; (2) London; (3) Munich; (4) San Francisco; (5) Washington DC; (6) Chicago; (7) Alexandria; (8) Seoul; (9) Los Angeles; and (10) the Hague.
Drilling a bit deeper, I can see that, overall, the US is by far our single biggest source of readers (over 45%) and that within the US, California is our number one state. There, the top 10 cities for IAM blog readers are: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Irvine and Mountain View. Adding all the Silicon Valley cities together would give us our single biggest source of readers in the US outside of New York. If you throw in San Francisco it would be by far the biggest globally.
Despite globalisation and the prevailing anti-patent leanings of American courts and legislators, then, it is clear that even if the world IP market is not just the US anymore, US entities remain at the heart of it. That said, what they want to know about is clearly globalising – as a look at our top 20 most-read stories of the year shows:
Blackberry enters second phase of its patent monetisation push with Texas suit against Avaya
NPE assertion comes to China as WiLAN subsidiary files SEP suit against Sony in Nanjing - UPDATED
Spectacular Technicolor licensing performance shows that the monetisation market is far from dead
Europe's potential to sit at the heart of the global patent market may have to be reconsidered
Harvard lawsuits could be a taste of things to come say tech transfer experts
Brexit leads the way in the IAM blog reads rankings for the first seven months of the year
EPO users and staff need the Administrative Council to get a grip on current events
After $4.8 billion core business sale to Verizon, Yahoo! CEO seeks to flush out patent buyers
EPO President Benoît Battistelli responds to IAM criticisms of recent union official dismissal
A closer look at the busiest month of patent litigation on record
Market conditions may force changes, but we’re ready for China opportunities, says Transpacific CEO
Visa leads the way in US mobile payments patents, but application numbers are down post-Alice
Battistelli under pressure like never before as over half of EPO staff vote for strike action
Sacked EPO staff union official responds to Battistelli's IAM letter
First half US patent litigation down dramatically with new suits falling by almost 1,000
Unless something absolutely earth-shattering happens, we’ll back on 2nd January with the first part of our IP personalities of 2016.
Here’s wishing all those who celebrate it, in whatever way they do, a very Merry Christmas; and all of you a happy, peaceful and successful 2017.