IP-related statistics from the recent past
A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources
A recent report by iRunway takes a big-picture look at the highly lucrative Wireless LAN (WLAN) market – estimated to be worth over $15 billion by 2022 – from a patent-focused perspective. The analysis identified 21,565 global IP assets related to WLAN technologies, 239 of which were found to be essential to the IEEE 802.11 standard. While Qualcomm is the dominant player in the space overall, it is beaten by Marvell in the United States by active portfolio size and conspicuously absent from the list of the top owners of SEPs. The study also finds that while the United States dominates this market by filings, numbers in Europe have been shooting up fast.
Figure 1. WLAN patent filing trend across Level 1 categories – 1990-2016

Source: iRunway analysis based on patent data from Innography
Figure 2. Geographical distribution of SEPs in WLAN technology

Source: iRunway analysis based on patent data from Innography
Figure 3. Number of cases filed and WLAN patents involved in the United States – 2003-2017

Source: iRunway analysis based on patent data from Innography
Table 1. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, May to July 2018

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. These results are calculated by aggregating the number of transactions completed by an assignee/assignor in May and June 2018.
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
# |
Assignee entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, US government |
257 |
2 |
LG Electronics Inc |
125 |
3 |
Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd |
98 |
4 |
Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited |
77 |
5 |
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP |
73 |
6 |
US Department of Energy |
70 |
7 |
The Regents of the University of California |
61 |
8 |
National Institutes Of Health – Director DEITR |
61 |
9 |
BASF SE |
59 |
10 |
Robert Bosch GmbH |
53 |
11 |
Nike, Inc |
52 |
12 |
Splunk, Inc |
51 |
13 |
Schlumberger Technology Corporation |
50 |
14 |
UOP LLC |
48 |
15 |
National Science Foundation |
48 |
16 |
Eaton Intelligent Power Limited |
46 |
17 |
Walmart, Inc |
45 |
18 |
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha |
45 |
19 |
Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd |
45 |
20 |
Dow Global Technologies LLC |
44 |
21 |
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC |
38 |
22 |
International Business Machines Corporation |
37 |
23 |
Koninklijke Philips NV |
33 |
24 |
Hyundai Motor Company |
31 |
25 |
Thomson Licensing |
29 |
26 |
The Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University |
29 |
27 |
EBay Inc |
29 |
28 |
Silicon Valley Bank |
28 |
29 |
Siemens Healthcare Gmbh |
28 |
30 |
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha |
28 |
Source: ktMINE
Table 2B. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions
# |
Assignor entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc |
34 |
2 |
Duke University |
31 |
3 |
Western Michigan University Research Foundation |
29 |
4 |
The Research Foundation for the State University of New York |
27 |
5 |
Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc |
23 |
6 |
Bank Of America, NA |
23 |
7 |
Tryfonas, Christos |
21 |
8 |
Muddu, Sudhakar |
21 |
9 |
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd |
16 |
10 |
Lee, Yongho |
15 |
11 |
MD Anderson Cancer Center |
14 |
12 |
Texas Instruments Deutschland GmbH |
13 |
13 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
13 |
14 |
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba |
13 |
15 |
HC Starck GmbH |
13 |
16 |
Gobber, Cedric |
13 |
17 |
Alonso, Joaquim Llorente |
13 |
18 |
Children's Hospital Boston |
12 |
19 |
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
11 |
20 |
PolyPlus Battery Company |
11 |
21 |
JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA |
11 |
22 |
Wells Fargo Bank, National Association |
10 |
23 |
Richter, Kai |
10 |
24 |
Golub Capital Markets LLC (FKA GCI Capital Markets LLC) |
10 |
25 |
Dinan, Esmael |
10 |
26 |
Derjin (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited |
10 |
27 |
Wayne State University |
9 |
28 |
Taylor, Robert C |
9 |
29 |
Sony Corporation |
9 |
30 |
Silicon Valley Bank |
9 |
Source: ktMINE