IP-related statistics from the recent past

A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources

Between May and October 2016, Huawei and Samsung filed a total of 42 patent infringement complaints against each other in China (each asserted patent gets its own separate case there). Another separate case deals with “rate-setting and royalty payment” issues. In all Huawei asserted 20 patents against Samsung – 13 standard-essential patents (SEPs) and seven non-SEPs. Samsung responded by asserting 22 patents against Huawei – 14 SEPs and eight non-SEPs.

By this point, all 42 patents-in-suit on both sides have undergone invalidation procedures before China’s Patent Re-examination Board (PRB). Here are the results, as collated by Huawei and reported to a US federal district judge in a parallel proceeding.

Table 1. PRB decisions in Huawei v Samsung patent invalidations

Patent owner

Type

Total patents asserted

Maintained (including partial maintenance)

All claims invalidated

Invalidation ratio

Huawei

SEP

13

12

1

8%

Non-SEP

7

3

4

57%

Samsung

SEP

14

9

5

36%

Non-SEP

8

0

8

100%

Here are the remaining infringement cases and their first-instance venues in China (again, as reported by Huawei).

Table 2. Pending Huawei v Samsung litigation in China, as of February 2018

Venue

Huawei SEP assertions

Huawei non-SEP assertions

Samsung SEP assertions

Samsung non-SEP assertions

Shenzhen

7

0

3

0

Beijing

5

0

2

0

Xi’an

0

1

2

0

Quanzhou

0

1

0

1*

Guangzhou

0

1

0

0

Table 3. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, January 2018 to March 2018

Source: Google Finance

In March, InterDigital announced that it would acquire Technicolor’s entire patent portfolio in a deal valued at up to $475 million. In an exclusive data analysis for IAM, ktMINE provided us with a snapshot of each company’s patent portfolio at the time of the deal.

InterDigital’s portfolio:

Granted US patents

2,548

Granted worldwide patents

12,078

 

H04W

Wireless communications networks

69.5%

H04L

Transmission of digital information (eg, telegraphic communication)

48.8%

H04B

Transmission

31.2%

Y02D

Climate change mitigation technologies in information communication technologies (ie, information and communication technologies aiming at the reduction of their own energy use)

9.5%

H04J

Multiplex communication

8.6%

Technicolor’s portfolio (with Thomson Licensing as a subsidiary)

Granted US patents

3,343

Granted worldwide patents

16,571

 

H04N

Pictorial communication (eg, television)

44.3%

H04L

Transmission of digital information (eg, telegraphic communication)

20.5%

G11B

Information storage based on relative movement between carrier and transducer

14.1%

G06F

Electrical digital data processing

10.1%

H04W

Wireless communications networks

6.2%

 

lnterDigital

Technicolor

Priority

Grants

Applications

Continuations

Percentage

‘global’*

Grants

Applications

Continuations

Percentage

‘global’

1997

13

 

 

54%

84

 

 

3%

1998

63

 

 

43%

167

 

 

5%

1999

94

 

4

37%

215

 

1

7%

2000

179

 

7

56%

179

 

 

7%

2001

191

 

14

65%

238

1

3

9%

2002

238

 

16

74%

329

1

2

13%

2003

168

1

16

71%

257

 

3

11%

2004

157

1

23

75%

260

 

1

10%

2005

132

13

61%

240

4

3

10%

2006

158

1

26

72%

269

9

5

11%

2007

203

2

40

87%

219

9

2

9%

2008

190

2

37

71%

219

11

1

8%

2009

139

4

46

78%

209

16

8

8%

2010

115

12

43

79%

181

28

8

7%

2011

105

29

43

56%

126

54

 

6%

2012

85

54

38

72%

125

86

6

7%

2013

11

76

5

62%

69

163

3

6%

2014

6

68

3

45%

42

230

4

7%

2015

4

19

1

33%

10

130

 

2%

2016

2

 

 

50%

 

48

 

1%

2017

1

1

 

0%

 

 

 

0%

 

2,254

270

375

 

3,438

790

50

 

* Global families are pursued in the US and at least three jurisdictions among DE/EP, JP, CN, SK, TW, MX, IN

Source: TechInsights

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