Patexia Insight 201: Top Companies in Patent Litigation for 2024

We released our fourth annual Patent Litigation Intelligence Report in late January. This report offers a comprehensive overview of the landscape, providing high-level statistics and ranking all stakeholders involved in patent litigation. In our previous insights, we've explored the top litigation venues, revealing how Texas continues to dominate, as well as covered the lateral moves among the top patent attorneys in the past twelve months. Today, our focus shifts to the most active and best-performing companies in patent litigation.

The Patent Litigation Intelligence Report focuses on cases filed over the past five years, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2023, using the latest data update as of December 1, 2023. This timeframe provides the necessary time for cases to progress and conclude, yielding valuable insights, especially from terminated cases which are used in evaluating the performance of all entities involved. Throughout this five-year span, the yearly caseload peaked in 2021 with 3,953 filings, reflecting a modest 0.38% increase in litigation activity compared to the prior year. Conversely, 2022 witnessed a downturn in overall filings, totaling 3,766 cases, marking a 4.73% decrease from 2021. This downward trajectory continued into 2023, with filings further decreasing by 17.5%, resulting in a total of 3,108 cases. On the other hand, the number of patents involved in these cases displayed varied trajectories, steadily rising from 2018 to 2021, experiencing a dip in 2022, and subsequently observing a slight upturn in 2023. The chart below illustrates the annual caseload and the number of patents implicated in these cases during the period of study, including data for the full years of 2018 and 2023. 

In the dynamic landscape of patent litigation, staying ahead demands also a keen understanding of the key players. Patexia's Patent Litigation Intelligence Report provides an extensive overview, covering not only the industry leaders but also the entire list of companies, firms, and attorneys engaged in patent litigation along with their full metrics, including the activity and performance rankings and scores. Between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2023, a total of 30,671 companies participated in one or more patent litigation cases, with 5,811 acting as plaintiffs and 26,153 as defendants. On average, each company was involved in 1.9 cases, though activity levels varied significantly among companies. To evaluate and rank entities by activity, we developed the Activity Score, calculated as a weighted average of the number of cases and patents involved given that the workload directly correlates with the number of patents involved. Furthermore, we recognize that more recent activity is a better indicator of current engagement. Therefore, we used different weights for cases filed in different years, prioritizing recent filings. This approach ensures that companies demonstrating more recent activity rank higher, providing a more accurate reflection of their current level of engagement in patent litigation. The following two tables feature the top five most active plaintiffs and defendants, along with their corresponding number of cases and patents as ranked in our Patent Litigation Intelligence Report 2024.

 

Plaintiff Activity Rank	Company	Plaintiff Cases	Plaintiff Unique Patents
1	IP Edge LLC	1,029	75
2	Cedar Lane Technologies Inc.	406	88
3	WSOU Investments LLC	217	148
4	Rothschild Patent Imaging, LLC	494	46
5	Uniloc	233	78

 

Defendant Activity Rank	Company	Defendant Cases	Defendant Unique Patents
1	Samsung Electronics	276	891
2	Alphabet Inc.	275	467
3	Apple Inc.	224	539
4	Amazon, Inc.	170	408
5	LG Electronics	126	420

 

The Success Score is a crucial metric derived from terminated cases, where we assign a score to each party based on the conclusion and the degree of favorability for each. Additionally, we take into account external factors such as decisions from PTAB proceedings and settlements. This alone, however, is insufficient for evaluating performance, as companies with very few cases may rank higher than their more active counterparts. To address this, we introduced the Performance Score, which is a weighted average of success and activity scores. This metric ensures that both successful outcomes and active engagement are appropriately considered in the performance evaluation. The following two tables cover the top five best-performing plaintiff and defendant companies:

 

Plaintiff Performance Rank	Company	Plaintiff Cases	Plaintiff Performance Score
1	EssilorLuxottica SA	57	100.00%
2	Canon Inc.	35	99.79%
3	Deckers Outdoor Corporation	37	98.14%
4	Seiko Epson Corporation	19	98.09%
5	Fitness Anywhere LLC	8	97.14%

 

Defendant Performance Rank	Company	Defendant Cases	Defendant Performance Score
1	Samsung Electronics	276	100.00%
2	HTC Corporation	35	99.60%
3	SunRun Inc.	24	99.47%
4	Apple Inc.	224	99.44%
5	Alphabet Inc.	275	99.29%

 

The full Patent Litigation Intelligence Report dives into trends related to patent litigation and conducts an in-depth analysis from various perspectives. This includes examining the most active district courts, identifying the most litigated patents, and exploring prevalent technologies in litigation, among other crucial factors. Additionally, the report ranks law firms and attorneys based on their activity and performance, providing stakeholders with comprehensive insights to make informed decisions and navigate the complexities of patent litigation effectively.

Stay tuned as in the following weeks we will be covering some of the very best patent litigation law firms and attorneys as highlighted in our report!