Which are the most significant patents?

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2026

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Which are the most significant patents?

We want to know which patents readers think have been the most important: send us your suggestions online, by email or on social media

Nominations can be in any technological field, and from any jurisdiction. Note that we are not necessarily looking for the most significant inventions, but for the most significant patents

Reasons for nomination could include:

  • The patent protected the sales of a particularly valuable product (such as a blockbuster drug).

  • The patent was widely licensed, enabling many different products and earning significant royalties.

  • The patent was successfully enforced in court and/or ADR (leading, for example, to remedies such as large damages).

  • The patent was widely cited and influential on later developments in the field.

You can nominate any number of patents, and they can be active or expired. Where possible, please provide a few sentences explaining why you have nominated each patent.

You can make nominations in the following ways:

We will make a final selection of the most significant patents from the nominations received, and will publish an analysis of each one in a future issue.



more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Tatiana Campello reflects on 30 years of practising at the firm, and urges women IP attorneys to think beyond the day-to-day
A David v Goliath battle involving TikTok, and Via Licensing Alliance adding new members to its Voice Codec patent pool, were also among the top talking points
Latham & Watkins bolstered its IP litigation bench in California with the addition of Kieran Kieckhefer, as partner demand for trial-ready expertise shows no sign of slowing
With the launch of a new patent eligibility AI tool, Sterne Kessler is leading a growing movement of law firms taking AI development into their own hands
UPC cases are (very) gradually becoming more distributed across other local divisions outside Germany, which can only be good news for the pan-European forum
Clarification concerning jurisdictional reach and latest stats released by the court were also among the top talking points in recent weeks
Although unanimous decision by the top court clarifies several aspects of the honest concurrent use defence, practitioners say ambiguities remain
Tristan Sherliker says he hopes to solve an access to justice issue by making the automated court bundle tool free to use
The team, comprising two partners and one senior consultant, plans to offer “highly differentiated” services to clients
HGF’s new ownership model frees it from the hiring constraints of traditional partnerships, its CEO told Managing IP
Gift this article