IP-related statistics from the recent past

A selection of key IP facts and figures, as reported by IAM and other sources

Table 1. Top 10 recipients of USPTO utility patent grants, 2016

#

Assignee

2016 grants

2015 grants

% change

Previous rank

Rank change

1

International Business Machines Corp

8,088

7,355

9.97%

1

none

2

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

5,518

5,072

8.79%

2

none

3

Canon KK

3,665

4,134

-11.34%

3

none

4

Qualcomm Inc

2,897

2,900

-0.10%

4

none

5

Google Inc

2,835

2,835

0.00%

5

none

6

Intel Corp

2,784

2,048

35.94%

9

+3

7

LG Electronics Inc

2,428

2,242

8.30%

8

+1

8

Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC

2,398

1,956

22.60%

10

+2

9

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Ltd

2,288

1,774

28.97%

13

+4

10

Sony Corp

2,181

2,455

-11.16%

7

-3

Source: IFI CLAIMS

Table 2. Biggest year-on-year growth in USPTO utility patent grants (among top 50 assignees)

#

Assignee

2016 grants

2015 grants

% change

Previous rank

Rank change

40

BOE Technology Group Co Ltd

870

285

205.26%

122

+82

22

GlobalFoundries Inc

1,407

609

131.03%

60

+38

49

Nokia Technologies Oy

695

400

73.75%

88

+39

25

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd

1,202

800

50.25%

44

+19

14

Amazon Technologies Inc

1,662

1,136

46.30%

26

+12

31

Hyundai Motor Co

1,035

744

39.11%

50

+19

6

Intel Corp

2,784

2,048

35.94%

9

+3

9

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Ltd

2,288

1,774

28.97%

13

+4

19

Ford Global Technologies LLC

1,524

1,185

28.61%

24

+5

26

SK Hynix Inc

1,125

891

26.26%

39

+13

Source: IFI CLAIMS

Table 3. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, November-December 2016

Source: Google Finance

Tables 4A and 4B 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 November and December 2016.

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 4A. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, November-December 2016

 #

Assignee entity

Number of assignments transacted

1

National Institutes Of Health (NIH), U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Government

264

2

Micron Technology, Inc.

136

3

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

110

4

Driscoll's, Inc.

101

5

WestRock Dispensing Systems, Inc.

77

6

Aptina Imaging Corporation

67

7

Nevro Corp.

63

8

Olympus Corporation

60

9

True Health IP LLC

56

10

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

51

11

LG Electronics Inc.

47

12

Robert Bosch GmbH

44

13

National Institutes Of Health - Director DEITR

42

14

International Business Machines Corporation

42

15

Dow Global Technologies LLC

41

16

ZTE Corporation

40

17

Stamps.Com Inc.

39

18

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

37

19

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

37

20

Siemens Healthcare GmbH

36

21

The Regents Of The University Of California

35

22

Microsoft Corporation

33

23

National Science Foundation

30

24

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

29

25

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)

28

26

Apple Inc.

27

27

Intel Corporation

27

28

Gamblit Gaming LLC

24

29

Hospira, Inc.

24

30

Sony Corporation

24

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

Table 4B. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, November-December 2016

 #

Assignor entity

Number of assignments transacted

1

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst

43

2

True Health Diagnostics LLC

34

3

Vanderbilt University

31

4

University Of Washington

31

5

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

24

6

True Health Diagnostics, LLC

21

7

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

21

8

University Of Florida

19

9

Siemens Corporation

15

10

Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc.

14

11

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

14

12

Enovation Controls, LLC

14

13

Washington University

11

14

Cornell University

11

15

Wells Fargo Bank, National Association

11

16

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

10

17

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

9

18

Northeastern University

9

19

Macroplata, Inc.

9

20

LumenR, LLC.

9

21

University Of Utah

8

22

University Of California San Diego

8

23

Starck, Philippe

8

24

Alveo Energy

8

25

Wang, Yangbin

8

26

Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC

8

27

Zhang, Jian

7

28

Winograd, Joseph M.

7

29

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.

7

30

O'Neil, Virgil

7

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

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