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