IP-related statistics from the recent past

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

Figure 1. ITC Section 337 complaints filed by month, 2015-2016

Source: Law.com

Figure 1 shows the monthly number of new Section 337 complaints before the International Trade Commission (ITC) over the past 20 months – 2016 is on course to be the ITC’s second-busiest year ever, after 2011.

Table 1. Enforcement measures patent owners hope to take in the future, 2011-2014

Measure

2011

2012

2013

2014

Administrative complaint to patent authority

44%

43%

49%

46%

Patent office acting on its own initiative

61%

60%

54%

60%

Negotiated settlement

40%

40%

31%

26%

Civil court lawsuit

19%

16%

22%

24%

Source: State IP Office

China’s State IP Office (SIPO) has conducted a survey of domestic patent owners each year since 2008, polling its customers on their current practices and future plans when it comes to patent prosecution, enforcement and utilisation. This year, SIPO decided to release the results publicly for the first time. About 9,000 respondents participated in the study each year, with upwards of 80% coming from the corporate world, and the remainder represented by universities, research organisations and inventors. Table 1 shows their responses when asked what enforcement measures they hope to take against infringers.

Table 2. Stock performance of selected publicly traded IP-centric companies, July-September 2016

 

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 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 3a. Top 30 patent assignees by number of transactions, July-August 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

290

2

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation

104

3

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

69

4

Nestec S.A.

48

5

Dow Global Technologies LLC

44

6

ViiV Healthcare (No. 5) Limited

40

7

Intel Corporation

39

8

National Science Foundation

37

9

Cargill, Incorporated

36

10

SolarEdge Technologies Ltd.

33

11

The Regents Of The University Of California

32

12

International Business Machines Corporation

30

13

Griffin Technology, Inc

30

14

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

29

15

Microsoft Corporation

28

16

Olympus Corporation

27

17

Energy, United States Department Of

26

18

Novartis AG

26

19

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)

24

20

Nokia Technologies OY

23

21

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

23

22

Sony Corporation

21

23

Google Inc.

21

24

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

20

25

Nike, Inc.

20

26

Thomson Licensing

19

27

National Institutes Of Health - Director DEITR

19

28

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

19

29

NIH-DEITR

18

30

3M Innovative Properties Company

18

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

Table 3b. Top 30 patent assignors by number of transactions, July-August 2016

#

Assignor entity

Number of assignments transacted

1

Sony Corporation

106

2

University Of California, San Francisco

21

3

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst

20

4

Cornell University

13

5

Lai, Geoff

11

6

Frey, George

11

7

Deutsche Bank AG, New York Branch

10

8

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

10

9

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

9

10

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

9

11

University Of Rochester

8

12

Majors, Benjamin

8

13

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

8

14

Tallmadge Spinning & Metal Company

7

15

National Chip Implementation Center National Applied Research Laboratories

7

16

Golub Capital Markets LLC, Formerly Known As GCI Capital Markets LLC, As Successor To Madison Capital Funding LLC, As Agent

7

17

University Of South Florida

6

18

Rosestreet Labs Energy, Inc.

6

19

Case Western Reserve University

6

20

Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC

5

21

Rydin, Russ

5

22

O'Neil, Charles

5

23

Moran, David

5

24

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Mechatronics Systems, Ltd.

5

25

Kimree Hi-Tech Inc.

5

26

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

5

27

Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University

5

28

Hitachi, Ltd.

5

29

Conductive Composites Company, L.L.C.

5

30

Bank Of America, N.A.

5

Source: ktMINE (www.ktmine.com)

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