IP-related statistics from the recent past
A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources
Table 1. USPTO patent grants 2015 – biggest risers
Ranking |
Company |
% rise |
New patent grants |
1 |
NXP Semiconductors |
147.9 |
967 |
2 |
Avago |
144.4 |
303 |
3 |
Yazaki Corp |
66.5 |
388 |
4 |
Becton Dickinson and Co |
61 |
248 |
5 |
Amazon Technologies |
53.3 |
1,136 |
6 |
Aktiebolaget |
52.4 |
160 |
7 |
Corning |
51.8 |
419 |
8 |
Ford Global Technologies |
49.1 |
1,199 |
9 |
Caterpillar |
44.7 |
706 |
10 |
Sandisk |
41.8 |
356 |
Source: Intellectual Property Owners Association
Table 2. USPTO patent grants 2015 – biggest fallers
Ranking |
Company name |
% fall |
New patent grants |
1 |
Panasonic |
88.1 |
286 |
2 |
Konica Minolta Business Technology Inc. |
80.7 |
129 |
3 |
LSI Corp |
75.5 |
151 |
4 |
Airbus Operations SAS |
72.1 |
200 |
5 |
ABB Technologies AG |
63.1 |
131 |
6 |
Nokia Corp |
57.2 |
272 |
7 |
Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co Ltd |
56.7 |
208 |
8 |
ZTE Corp |
41 |
416 |
9 |
Synopsis Inc |
39.9 |
116 |
10 |
NEC |
39.2 |
773 |
Source: Intellectual Property Owners Association
Figure 1. Terms used by the mainstream media to describe non-practising entities by relative frequency, 1994-2014
Source: IP CloseUp, Stanford Technology Law Review
Table 3. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, May-July 2016
Source: Google Finance
*Formerly known as Vringo
Tables 4a and 4b show the entities with the highest volume of in-bound patent assignment transactions (assignee table) and out-bound patent assignment transactions (assignor table), as recorded at the US Patent and Trademark Office. These results are calculated by aggregating the number of transactions completed by an assignee/assignor in May and June 2016. One transaction may include multiple patents, patent families and patent portfolios. Many companies create numerous holding vehicles to house their different IP portfolios; this is why similar company names may appear multiple times in the tables.
Table 4a. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, May-June 2016
# |
Assignee entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
National Institutes Of Health (NIH), U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Government |
452 |
2 |
National Science Foundation |
85 |
3 |
Dow Global Technologies LLC |
68 |
4 |
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. |
62 |
5 |
Intel Corporation |
61 |
6 |
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba |
57 |
7 |
Schlumberger Technology Corporation |
46 |
8 |
Nokia Technologies OY |
46 |
9 |
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ) |
45 |
10 |
International Business Machines Corporation |
45 |
11 |
The Regents Of The University Of California |
43 |
12 |
Microsoft Corporation |
43 |
13 |
CNH Industrial America LLC |
43 |
14 |
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. |
41 |
15 |
Google Inc. |
39 |
16 |
Energy, United States Department Of |
35 |
17 |
The Dow Chemical Company |
32 |
18 |
Novartis AG |
32 |
19 |
National Institutes Of Health - Director Deitr |
32 |
20 |
Marvell International Ltd. |
31 |
21 |
Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. |
31 |
22 |
General Electric Company |
31 |
23 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
30 |
24 |
Theranos, Inc. |
29 |
25 |
Siemens Healthcare GmbH |
29 |
26 |
Qualcomm Incorporated |
29 |
27 |
Broadcom Corporation |
29 |
28 |
Sony Corporation |
28 |
29 |
United Technologies Corporation |
27 |
30 |
U.S. Department Of Energy |
27 |
Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)
Table 4b. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, May-June 2016
# |
Assignor entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
University Of Rochester |
33 |
2 |
General Electric Company |
32 |
3 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
29 |
4 |
Mandiant, LLC |
23 |
5 |
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. |
16 |
6 |
Case Western Reserve University |
16 |
7 |
Johns Hopkins University |
14 |
8 |
GS CleanTech Corporation |
13 |
9 |
Bascom Research, LLC |
13 |
10 |
Transcorp, Inc. |
12 |
11 |
Princeton University |
12 |
12 |
Marvell World Trade Ltd. |
12 |
13 |
Marvell International Ltd. |
12 |
14 |
Sandisk Technologies Inc |
11 |
15 |
Silicon Valley Bank |
10 |
16 |
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. |
10 |
17 |
ScienBiziP Consulting(Shenzhen)Co.,Ltd. |
9 |
18 |
Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd. |
9 |
19 |
Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. |
9 |
20 |
Ito, Hiroshi |
9 |
21 |
Freeman, Mitchael C. |
9 |
22 |
Freeman, Michael H. |
9 |
23 |
Ciena Canada, Inc. |
9 |
24 |
Bank Of America, N.A. |
9 |
25 |
The Law Office Of Michael E. Kondoudis |
8 |
26 |
Syntheon Cardiology, LLC |
8 |
27 |
Searete LLC |
8 |
28 |
Reasner, Nick |
8 |
29 |
Rabe, Thomas Elliot |
8 |
30 |
Montana Tech Of The University Of Montana |
8 |
Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)