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

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