IP-related statistics from the recent past
A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources
Table 1. Biggest tech IPOs (ranked by company valuation at time of listing)
Company |
IPO valuation |
Acquired patents from IBM? |
Alibaba |
$167.4 billion (listed September 2014) |
Yes - picked up 22 patents in 2013 |
$104.2 billion (listed May 2012) |
Yes - acquired 696 patents in 2012 for $83 million |
|
JD.com |
$26.2 billion (listed May 2014) |
No |
Snap |
$23.6 billion (listed March 2017) |
Yes - bought 245 patents in Jan 2016 |
$23 billion (listed August 2004) |
Yes - bought more than 2,000 |
|
$14.2 billion (listed November 2013) |
Yes - bought 943 patents for $36 million in 2014 |
|
$4.3 billion (listed May 2011) |
Yes - acquired 801 assets in a 2014 transaction |
|
Square |
$2.9 billion (listed November 2015) |
No |
Match.com |
$2.9 billion (listed November 2015) |
No |
Pandora |
$2.6 billion (listed June 2011) |
No |
Table 2. Newly announced region-based rates for Via Licensing’s AAC patent pool
Volume (per unit / annual reset) |
Per unit fee, devices sold in or sold for use in developed markets |
Per unit fee, devices sold in or sold for use in developing markets |
For the first 1 to 500,000 units |
$0.98 |
$0.64 |
For units 500,001 to 1,000,000 |
$0.78 |
$0.51 |
For units 1,000,001 to 2,000,000 |
$0.68 |
$0.44 |
For units 2,000,001 to 5,000,000 |
$0.45 |
$0.29 |
For units 5,000,001 to 10,000,000 |
$0.42 |
$0.27 |
For units 10,000,001 to 20,000,000 |
$0.22 |
$0.14 |
For units 20,000,001 to 50,000,000 |
$0.20 |
$0.13 |
For units 50,000,001 to 75,000,000 |
$0.15 |
$0.10 |
For units 75,000,001 and more |
$0.10 |
$0.07 |
For region definitions, see www.via-corp.com/us/en/licensi...
Table 3. China’s top 10 domestic invention patent filers of 2016
Applicant |
Applicationsfiled |
Industry |
Headquarters city |
Huawei |
4,906 |
Telecoms; consumer electronics |
Shenzhen |
Sinopec |
4,405 |
Petroleum |
Beijing |
LeEco |
4,197 |
Consumer electronics; entertainment |
Beijing |
ZTE |
3,941 |
Telecoms; consumer electronics |
Shenzhen |
Oppo* |
3,778 |
Consumer electronics |
Dongguan |
BOE |
3,569 |
Display technology |
Beijing |
Gree Electric |
3,299 |
Electronics; household appliances |
Zhuhai |
Xiaomi |
3,280 |
Consumer electronics; internet |
Beijing |
Nubian** |
2,912 |
Telecoms; consumer electronics |
Shenzhen |
State Grid Corporation of China |
2,784 |
Electric utility |
Beijing |
*Oppo is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics
**Nubian is a majority-owned subsidiary of ZTE
Source: SIPO
Table 4. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, January-March 2017
Source: Google Finance
Tables 5A and 5B 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 January and February 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 5A. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, January-February 2017
# |
Assignee entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
HMD Global Oy |
585 |
2 |
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. |
292 |
3 |
National Institutes Of Health (NIH), U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Government |
224 |
4 |
Inphi Corporation |
212 |
5 |
S-Printing Solution Co., Ltd. |
191 |
6 |
LG Electronics Inc. |
122 |
7 |
National Science Foundation |
119 |
8 |
Dow Global Technologies LLC |
102 |
9 |
Microsoft Corporation |
88 |
10 |
Garuda Technology Co., Ltd |
84 |
11 |
International Business Machines Corporation |
80 |
12 |
Robert Bosch GmbH |
78 |
13 |
S-Printing Solution Co. Ltd. |
73 |
14 |
The Procter & Gamble Company |
69 |
15 |
Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. |
68 |
16 |
Nike, Inc. |
66 |
17 |
Champ Tech Optical (Foshan) Corporation |
65 |
18 |
Sony Corporation |
65 |
19 |
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC |
63 |
20 |
President And Fellows Of Harvard College |
60 |
21 |
Intel Corporation |
60 |
22 |
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. |
55 |
23 |
National Institutes Of Health - Director DEITR |
55 |
24 |
Google Inc. |
55 |
25 |
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba |
53 |
26 |
Fukui Precision Component (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. |
53 |
27 |
The Regents Of The University Of California |
52 |
28 |
Thomson Licensing Dtv |
50 |
29 |
Qualcomm Incorporated |
49 |
30 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
47 |
Source: ktMINE
Table 5B. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, January-February 2017
# |
Assignor entity |
Number of assignments transacted |
1 |
Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. |
94 |
2 |
Champ Tech Optical (Foshan) Corporation |
94 |
3 |
Zhen Ding Technology Co., Ltd. |
84 |
4 |
Cortina Systems, Inc. |
62 |
5 |
Fukui Precision Component (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. |
53 |
6 |
University Of Texas, Austin |
32 |
7 |
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. |
32 |
8 |
National Steel Car Limited |
32 |
9 |
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center |
30 |
10 |
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center |
27 |
11 |
Arizona State University-Tempe Campus |
25 |
12 |
Bauer Hockey Corp. |
25 |
13 |
Hilco Patent Acquisition 55, LLC |
24 |
14 |
Tufts University Boston |
23 |
15 |
Dura Automotive Body & Glass Systems GmbH |
22 |
16 |
VideoMining Corporation |
20 |
17 |
University Of Utah |
20 |
18 |
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft |
18 |
19 |
Bank Of America, N.A. |
16 |
20 |
Siemens Corporation |
15 |
21 |
Tufts University |
14 |
22 |
CaptionCall, LLC |
14 |
23 |
EMC Corporation |
14 |
24 |
Cincinnati Childrens Hosp Med Ctr |
13 |
25 |
Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. |
12 |
26 |
Hongqisheng Precision Electronics (Qinhuangdao) Co.,Ltd. |
12 |
27 |
Wells Fargo Bank, National Association |
12 |
28 |
Thomson Licensing |
12 |
29 |
Zuritis, Michael |
11 |
30 |
Kimree Hi-Tech Inc. |
11 |
Source: ktMINE