IP-related statistics from the recent past
A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources
Inter partes review performance after five years of PTAB
To mark the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), IAM looks at selected inter partes review performance metrics for major users of the system. Below are results from five of the leading filers (Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and LG) as well as a few other notable corporates: Mylan from the pharma sector; Facebook, a particularly active filer of late; Toyota, a leading filer in the auto sector; and finally Unified Patents, the most active third-party filer. We have also included the numbers for the market overall to see how each company compares with the totals. This data does not include every outcome – for instance, there are no numbers on how many inter partes reviews were open pre-institution or had been procedurally dismissed – just a selection which captures each company’s performance.
Table 1. Selected inter partes review performance metrics for major PTAB users
|
Inter partes reviews filed (as petitioner) |
Instituted |
Denied institution |
All claims unpatentable |
All claims upheld |
Settled pre-institution |
Settled post-institution |
Apple |
374 |
188 (50%) |
81 (22%) |
77 (21%) |
3 (1%) |
39 (10%) |
20 (5%) |
Samsung Electronics |
275 |
158 (57%) |
36 (13%) |
50 (18%) |
9 (3%) |
25 (9%) |
16 (6%) |
189 |
93 (49%) |
17 (9%) |
46 (24%) |
9 (5%) |
39 (21%) |
10 (5%) |
|
Microsoft |
134 |
66 (49%) |
17 (13%) |
15 (11%) |
6 (4%) |
22 (16%) |
9 (7%) |
LG Electronics |
132 |
85 (64%) |
13 (10%) |
21 (16%) |
7 (5%) |
7 (5%) |
12 (9%) |
Mylan Pharmaceuticals |
81 |
44 (54%) |
10 (12%) |
7 (9%) |
10 (12%) |
20 (25%) |
2 (2%) |
76 |
35 (46%) |
10 (13%) |
5 (7%) |
1 (1%) |
0 |
3 (3%) |
|
Unified Patents |
74 |
20 (27%) |
22 (30%) |
5 (7%) |
0 |
14 (19%) |
5 (7%) |
Toyota |
52 |
20 (38%) |
7 (13%) |
5 (10%) |
2 (4%) |
12 (23%) |
8 (15%) |
Overall market |
7,242 |
3,628 (50%) |
1,194 (16%) |
1,115 (15%) |
270 (4%) |
921 (13%) |
693 (10%) |
Source: Lex Machina
Table 2. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, July-September 2017

Source: Google Finance
Tables 3A and 3B 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 July and August 2017.
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 3A. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, July-August 2017
# |
Assignee entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
National Institutes Of Health (NIH), U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Government |
165 |
2 |
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. |
150 |
3 |
Dow Global Technologies LLC |
148 |
4 |
LG Electronics Inc. |
118 |
5 |
Thomson Reuters Global Resources Unlimited Company |
109 |
6 |
National Institutes Of Health - Director DEITR |
97 |
7 |
AAC Technologies Pte. Ltd. |
89 |
8 |
Nestec S.A. |
86 |
9 |
Siemens Healthcare GmbH |
78 |
10 |
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC |
60 |
11 |
The Regents Of The University Of California |
59 |
12 |
National Science Foundation |
59 |
13 |
Thomson Licensing |
54 |
14 |
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha |
48 |
15 |
Good Technology Holdings Limited |
48 |
16 |
Google Inc. |
47 |
17 |
Intel Corporation |
45 |
18 |
Marvell International Ltd. |
43 |
19 |
Koninklijke Philips N.V. |
41 |
20 |
Here Global B.V. |
40 |
21 |
Toshiba Memory Corporation |
40 |
22 |
International Business Machines Corporation |
39 |
23 |
Avary Holding (Shenzhen) Co., Limited. |
39 |
24 |
NIH-DEITR |
36 |
25 |
BASF SE |
36 |
26 |
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology |
35 |
27 |
Inphi Corporation |
35 |
28 |
Ecolab USA Inc. |
35 |
29 |
The Dow Chemical Company |
34 |
30 |
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. |
34 |
Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)
Table 3B. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, July-August 2017
# |
Assignor entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
Here Global B.V. |
38 |
2 |
ZTE Corporation |
35 |
3 |
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. |
29 |
4 |
Sony Corporation |
29 |
5 |
Wayne State University |
22 |
6 |
University Of Utah |
22 |
7 |
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. |
18 |
8 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
17 |
9 |
North Carolina State University Raleigh |
16 |
10 |
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba |
15 |
11 |
Huh, Byungmu |
15 |
12 |
San Diego State University Research Foundation |
14 |
13 |
Partners Healthcare Innovation |
13 |
14 |
California Institute Of Technology |
13 |
15 |
Bank Of America, N.A. |
13 |
16 |
Wood, Lowell L., Jr. |
12 |
17 |
Silicon Valley Bank |
12 |
18 |
Florida State University |
12 |
19 |
Children's Hospital & Res Ctr At Oakland |
12 |
20 |
Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. |
11 |
21 |
New York Blood Center |
11 |
22 |
Wells Fargo Bank, National Association |
10 |
23 |
Searete LLC |
10 |
24 |
Park, Sunha |
10 |
25 |
Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai |
10 |
26 |
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. |
10 |
27 |
Presage Biosciences, Inc. |
9 |
28 |
Kim, Younsoo |
9 |
29 |
Kim, Yooseok |
9 |
30 |
Kentley-Klay, Timothy David |
9 |
Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)