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, 2014

160318.jpg

Source: Google Finance

* Inventergy stock began trading on NASDAQ on June 9 2014 after merger with eOn Communications

** CopyTele changed its name to ITUS Corporation on September 2 2014

*** Marathon Patent Group stock began trading on NASDAQ on July 28 2014

 

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 USPTO. These results are calculated by aggregating the number of transactions completed by an assignee/assignor in November and December 2014.

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 appear multiple times in the tables.

Table 2a. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, November-December 2014

#

Assignee entity

Number of assignments transacted

1

Google Technology Holdings LLC

81

2

Thomson Reuters Global Resources

60

3

National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Dept of Health and Human Services (DHHS), US Government

53

4

Motorola, Inc

47

5

Inventor Holdings, LLC

46

6

International Business Machines Corporation

42

7

Intel Corporation

33

8

Energy, United States Department Of

32

9

Nokia Corporation

31

10

Dow Global Technologies LLC

30

11

Qualcomm Incorporated

29

12

L-3 Communications Corporation

28

13

Walker Digital, LLC

28

14

Microsoft Corporation

26

15

Sony Corporation

26

16

NEC Corporation

24

17

Covidien LP

23

18

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

23

19

The Dow Chemical Company

23

20

Japan Display Inc.

22

21

Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd

22

22

Henkel Corporation

21

23

The Regents of the University of California

21

24

Novartis AG

20

25

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

19

26

Google Inc

19

27

Tellabs Operations, Inc

19

28

DEKA Products Limited Partnership

18

29

Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd

18

30

Orange

18

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

Table 2b. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, November-December 2014

#

Assignor entity

Number of assignments transacted

1

L-3 Communications Corporation

25

2

ASAN Laboratories Company (Cayman), Limited

13

3

Searete LLC

12

4

Madison Capital Funding LLC

12

5

Harvard University

12

6

Wintek Corporation

10

7

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc

9

8

Grain Processing Corporation

8

9

Comerica Bank

8

10

Liang, George

7

11

Sager, Adam D

6

12

Henkel Corporation

6

13

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc

5

14

Rill, Chris I

5

15

EJ Brooks Company

5

16

Bank Of America, NA

5

17

Summer, Elizabeth J, Dr

4

18

Kent Nutrition Group, Inc

4

19

Jensen, Charles E

4

20

Infosys Limited

4

21

Industrial Technology Research Institute

4

22

Gilchrist, James P

4

23

Emory University

4

24

Dyadic International, Inc

4

25

Chang, Chao-Chin

4

26

Brunsell, Dennis A

4

27

AT&T Properties, LLC

4

28

AT&T Corp

4

29

McNeely, Michael

3

30

Lovelace, Wayne

3

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

 

Table 3. Selected IP-driven deals of 2014, as reported by the IAM blog

Date

Parties

Deal value (where known)

Details

January 2014

Ericsson and Samsung Electronics

(See details)

Cross-licensing agreement that “will impact Ericsson sales and net income in Q4 2013 by SEK4.2 billion and SEK3.3 billion respectively”, according to Ericsson

 

Hewlett-Packard and Qualcomm

Undisclosed

HP sells Qualcomm 2,400 mobile-related patents and applications, including 1,400 US assets, relating to the Palm portfolio and webOS operating system it acquired in July 2010

 

Google and Lenovo

$2.9 billion

Google sells Motorola Mobility – including 2,000 patents – to Lenovo. Deal includes a licence to 15,000 Motorola patents retained by Google

February 2014

IBM and Twitter

$36 million

IBM sells 900 patents and applications to Twitter

 

Alcatel-Lucent and Sound View Innovations

Undisclosed

Alcatel-Lucent assigns around 500 patents to same management team behind Round Rock

 

Andrea Electronics and Fortress Investment Group

$7 million and rising, depending on monetisation revenues

Fortress lends Andrea $4 million against its patent portfolio plus pays a further $3 million for a share of future IP monetisation revenues

March 2014

Quanlin Paper (aka Tranlin Paper) and China Development Bank-led consortium

Rmb7.9 billion ($1.3 billion)

Loan to Quanlin secured against 110 of its patents and 34 of its trademarks

 

Unwired Planet and Lenovo

$100 million

Unwired Planet sells Lenovo 21 patent families relating to 3G, LTE and other telecoms technologies; also licenses the remainder of its portfolio to the Chinese company

April 2014

NEC and Lenovo

Undisclosed

NEC sells Lenovo a portfolio consisting of over 3,800 patent families, including assets relevant to 3G and LTE standards

 

Hon Hai Precision Industry and Google

Undisclosed

Google buys portfolio of communications-related patents from Hon Hai

September 2014

Powerwave and Intel

Undisclosed

Intel acquires 1,400 patents from Powerwave

October 2014

MedTech Development and Marathon Patent Group

$10 million

Marathon acquires three patent portfolios from MedTech Development relating to kyphoplasty, intervertebral inserts and heart valve replacement technology

 

IBM and GlobalFoundries

$1.5 billion

IBM pays GlobalFoundries to take on its semiconductor business, including “thousands of patents”

 

Rohm and Wi-LAN

Undisclosed

Rohm Semiconductor transfers a patent portfolio to Wi-LAN and will share in any licensing revenues the Canadian NPE is able to raise from it

November 2014

Leadcore Technologies and Beijing Songguo Electronics

Rmb103 million ($16.8 million)

Leadcore (a subsidiary of Datang Telecom) transfers 4G-related technology to Beijing Songguo (reportedly controlled by Xiaomi)

December 2014

Rockstar and RPX

$900 million

RPX subsidiary purchases Rockstar's portfolio of 4,000 patents that were previously owned by now-defunct Nortel

Unlock unlimited access to all IAM content