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

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