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OVERVIEW
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) received 1,796 new petitions in 2017 making
it the Board's busiest year to date. District court litigation, by contrast, dropped 17%
from 4,382 new cases in 2016 to 3,649 in 2017. As a result, the total volume of patent
disputes at district court and PTAB decreased 11% in 2017 compared to 2016. Though
patent litigation decreased overall, almost 90% of High Tech litigation continues to be
NPE related.
Significant developments in the TC Heartland (see below), Oil States Energy Services, LLC
v. Greene’s Energy Group (pending), and Allergan/St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (IPR2016-
01127, -01128, -01129, -01130, -01131, and -01132) cases may help to explain this
year's lower numbers. Parties may be waiting until the questions presented by these
cases—which apply directly to the considerations of where to file and which parties
may participate—are resolved.
Figure 2: After receiving a record number of new cases in Q1, the number of total PTAB
filings for 2017 was slightly higher than in 2016.
Figure 4: High Tech patents continue to be the most frequently asserted at the district
courts and PTAB.
Figures 6 & 7: ED Tex accounted for 34% of all new patent cases pre-TC
Heartland compared to only 15% post-TC Heartland.
Figure 11: Patent Assertion Entities are by far the most prevalent NPE filers, accounting
for nearly two-thirds of all NPE litigation. Many PAEs are controlled by larger entities
who regularly assert (e.g. IP Edge or Dominion Harbor), however we consider those
entities as PAEs for this report (see "Definitions" below).
Figure 13: Close to two-thirds of PTAB petitions involved High-Tech patents, while only
19% involved Medical and 17% involved Other patents.
Figure 15: Unified Patents was the 4th most-frequent petitioner at the PTAB in
2017. For a complete list of Unified's filings, visit our Portal.
ENTITIES
The following designations are used to identify entities involved in patent disputes.
Aggregators such as IP Edge and Dominion Harbor are counted as PAEs but because of
obscure ownership we do not break them out.
Non Practicing Entity (NPE) = Company which derives the majority of its total revenue
from Patent Licensing activities.
Operating Company or Op. Co. = Company which derives most of its total revenue
from Product Sales or Services. Could be an SME or a large company.
Other Entity = Universities / Non-Profits / Government / Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs)
NPE (Patent Assertion Entities) = Entity whose primary activity is licensing patents
and acquired most of its patents from another entity
NPE (Small company) = Entity whose original activity was providing products and
services, but now is primarily focused on monetizing its own patent portfolio.
NPE (Individual) = Entity owned or controlled by an individual inventor who is
primarily focused on monetizing inventions patents by that individual inventor.
This data includes all District Court and PTAB litigation between January 1, 2014 and
December 31, 2017.
Unified strives to accurately identify NPEs through all available means, such as court
filings, public documents, and product documentation.