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

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 |