IP-related statistics from the recent past

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

Table 1. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, September-November 2015

Source: Google Finance

Tables 2a and 2b 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 (USPTO). These results are calculated by aggregating the number of transactions completed by an assignee/assignor in September and October 2015.

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 2a. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, September-October 2015

#	Assignee entity	Number of assignments transacted
1	National Institutes Of Health (NIH), U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Government	210
2	International Business Machines Corporation	78
3	Microsoft Corporation	69
4	Robert Bosch GmbH	68
5	Intel Corporation	68
6	S. Aqua Semiconductor, LLC	60
7	Dow Global Technologies LLC	60
8	Sony Corporation	55
9	Siemens Aktiengesellschaft	53
10	Xylon LLC	48
11	Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha	47
12	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.	46
13	Google Inc.	46
14	Broadcom Corporation	45
15	Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha	44
16	Molex, LLC	39
17	Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ)	37
18	Antares Capital LP, As Successor Agent	37
19	DePuy Synthes Products, Inc.	36
20	Antares Capital LP	36
21	Alliant Techsystems Inc.	35
22	Nestec S.A.	30
23	The Regents Of The University Of California	29
24	AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.	29
25	US Army, Secretary Of The Army	28
26	Massachusetts Institute Of Technology	28
27	E. I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company	28
28	National Institutes Of Health - Director DEITR	27
29	Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.	26
30	Energy, United States Department Of	26

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

Table 2b. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, September-October 2015

#	Assignee entity	Number of assignments transacted
1	Bank Of America, N.A.	47
2	Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc.	29
3	Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.	24
4	University Of California, San Francisco	22
5	Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.	20
6	Ohio State University	18
7	Emory University	18
8	Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.	16
9	University Of Utah	15
10	Luminus Devices, Inc.	15
11	Com Affiliation, Inc.	15
12	University Of California	14
13	UChicago Argonne, LLC	14
14	Searete LLC	13
15	Brigham And Women's Hospital	13
16	Sloan-Kettering Institute For Cancer Research	10
17	O'Brien, Gary	10
18	Massachusetts General Hospital	10
19	Dana-Farber Cancer Inst	10
20	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	10
21	Square 1 Bank	9
22	MoneyDesktop, Inc.	9
23	University Of NC At Chapel Hill	8
24	ScienBiziP Consulting(Shenzhen)Co.,Ltd.	8
25	PNC Bank, National Association	8
26	Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, As Collateral Agent	7
27	Silicon Valley Bank	7
28	Princeton University	7
29	Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.	7
30	Yeung, Minerva M.	6

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

Tables 3 and 4 cover USPTO assignment records covering the period between 2009 and 2014 featuring keywords related to the assignment of a security interest in a given patent or application. Table 3 outlines the top 10 lenders of patent-backed finance in that period based on those searches, in terms of the number of patents and applications that they have taken as collateral for the purpose of making loans. Table 4 lists the top 20 patent owners that have been beneficiaries of credit loaned against their US patent assets during the same period. In the below cases, patents were not necessarily the only or primary collateral. Therefore, we do not know whether the patents were collateralised specifically for their intrinsic value.

Table 3. Lenders that transacted the most US patents as part of financing transactions, 2009-2014

Financing entity	Number of patent assets transacted	Share of overall financing transactions
JP Morgan Chase	48,804	14.63%
Bank Of America	46,897	14.06%
Citigroup	34,658	10.39%
Wells Fargo	32,716	9.81%
Wilmington Trust	31,369	9.40%
Deutsche Bank	27,172	8.15%
Credit Suisse	18,758	5.62%
BNY Mellon	16,142	4.84%
GE Capital	12,774	3.83%
US Department of the Treasury	12,212	3.66%

Source: Relecura

Table 4. Patent owners that transacted the most US patents as part of financing transactions, 2009-2014

Patent owner	Number of patent assets transacted	Share of overall financing transactions
General Motors	15,866	4.76%
Avago	12,946	3.88%
Alcatel-Lucent	10,023	3.00%
Kodak	8,438	2.53%
Freescale Semiconductor	8,149	2.44%
Seagate	5,910	1.77%
Dell	4,609	1.38%
Avaya	3,162	0.95%
Chrysler	2,914	0.87%
Ps4 Luxco	2,313	0.69%

Source: Relecura

Table 5. Largest attorneys’ fee awards in the United States since 2008

Case	Fees awarded to	Date	Amount
Bard Peripheral Vasc v WL Gore & Associates	Bard Peripheral	March 31 2009	$19,000,000
Gabriel Technologies v Qualcomm	Qualcomm	February 1 2013	$12,401,014
Monolithic Power Systems Inc v O2Micro International Limited	Monolithic Power Systems	May 3 2012	$8,419,429
Medtronic v Mirowski Family Ventures	Medtronic	August 26 2015	$6,028,305
Therasense, Inc v Becton, Dickinson and Company	Becton, Dickinson and Company	May 22 2012	$5,949,050
Bayer CropScience v Dow Agrosciences	Dow Agrosciences	June 18 2015	$5,902,590
Tivo Inc v Echostar Comm	Tivo Inc	February 8 2010	$5,800,000
Advanced Thermal Sciences Corp v Applied Materials Inc	Advanced Thermal Sciences Corp	July 23 2010	$5,700,000
Plant Genetic Systems NV v Mycogen Plant Sciences Inc	Mycogen Plant Sciences	September 28 2012	$5,321,463
Kilopass Technology v Sidense Corp	Sidense Corporation	March 11 2015	$5,315,315

Source: Docket Navigator

IP-related statistics from the recent past

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