An analysis of patent litigation by Managing IP using the Docket Navigator database has revealed that software patent lawsuit filing is not only up on 2014, but has rebounded to exceed the levels in 2013.
When Managing IP last carried out this analysis in December 2014, the figures revealed a plunge in software lawsuit filing. This was attributed to the Supreme Court’s Alice v CLS Bank ruling on June 19, which held that merely claiming an abstract idea is insufficient to establish patent eligibility.
But so far in 2015, the filing of software patent lawsuits has been strong, especially in the second quarter of the year.
To assess how litigation involving software patents in particular is being affected we used Docket Navigator’s database of litigation to analyse lawsuits filed that include patent classes 700-720 and 725, recognised as total US software patents by class of invention as of 2004.
We realise using these classes as a proxy for software patents may not provide an exhaustive list of patent litigation but we believe it does allow us to see how software patent litigation is changing.
Forgetting Alice
In the first six months of the year, 1,629 lawsuits involving software patents were filed in district courts. This was up 15% on the first half of 2014 and up 9% on the first half of 2013.
However, taken as a whole, lawsuit filing since the Alice decision on June 19 2014 is still down. From July 1 2014 to June 30 2015, some 2,535 software patent lawsuits were filed. This was 12% down on the 2,882 software patent lawsuits filed between July 1 2013 and June 30 2014. This is the result of the 38% drop in software patent lawsuits in the second half of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013.
These trends mirror those for overall patent litigation, but are more pronounced. See our recent article here for a detailed analysis of total US patent litigation since 2013.
Overall patent lawsuit filing in the first half of this year was up 12% on the same period in 2014 and 2% on 2013 (compared with 15% and 9%, respectively for software patent lawsuits). Overall patent litigation was down 8% in the period from July 1 2014 to June 30 2015 after the Alice decision over the same period a year earlier. This compares with 12% for software patents.
The percentage of patent lawsuits involving software patents is also up this year. Software patents were involved in 49% of all patent lawsuits in 2013 and 46% in 2014. So far this year up to the end of July, the figure is 52%.
Software patent lawsuit filing was down to 234 cases in July this year, the third lowest figure of the year so far. This was still higher than the July figures in both 2014 and 2015, however.
SOFTWARE AND OVERALL PATENT CASES FILED 2013-2015 |
||||||||||||
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
2013 software patent cases |
243 |
293 |
216 |
261 |
252 |
229 |
191 |
255 |
247 |
280 |
277 |
217 |
2014 software patent cases |
153 |
244 |
244 |
388 |
197 |
189 |
171 |
139 |
121 |
138 |
148 |
189 |
2015 software patent cases |
195 |
291 |
275 |
185 |
340 |
343 |
234 |
|||||
2013 all patent cases |
486 |
549 |
403 |
605 |
503 |
484 |
476 |
521 |
554 |
515 |
578 |
423 |
2014 all patent cases |
330 |
448 |
500 |
680 |
387 |
414 |
419 |
395 |
321 |
340 |
334 |
439 |
2015 all patent cases |
445 |
491 |
507 |
390 |
607 |
654 |
478 |
|||||
Source: Managing IP/Docket Navigator |
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SOFTWARE AND OVERALL PATENT CASES FILED 2013-2015 |
|||||||||
Total Jan-Dec |
% change YoY |
% software cases |
Total Jan-Jun |
% change YoY |
Total Jul-Dec |
% change YoY |
Total Jul-Jun |
% change YoY |
|
2013 software cases |
2,961 |
1,494 |
1,467 |
||||||
2014 software cases |
2,321 |
-21.6 |
1,415 |
-5.3 |
906 |
-38.2 |
2,882 |
||
2015 software cases |
1,863* |
1,629 |
15.1 |
2,535 |
-12.0 |
||||
2013 all cases |
6,097 |
48.6 |
3,030 |
3,067 |
|||||
2014 all cases |
5,007 |
-17.9 |
46.4 |
2,759 |
-8.9 |
2,248 |
-26.7 |
5,826 |
|
2015 all cases |
3,572* |
52.2 |
3,094 |
12.1 |
5,342 |
-8.3 |
|||
*up to end of July Source: Managing IP/Docket Navigator |
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The biggest filers
Managing IP analysed the data from Docket Navigator's database to reveal which entities were filing the most software patent lawsuits in the first half of 2015. With 103 lawsuits, eDekka was the top plaintiff. It is followed by Data Carriers, Wetro Lan, Genaville, Loramax and Oberalis, who all filed 50 or more lawsuits involving software patents.
Entities that filed 20 or more software patent lawsuits January-July 2015 |
|
eDekka |
103 |
Data Carriers |
84 |
Wetro Lan |
55 |
Genaville |
50 |
Loramax |
50 |
Oberalis |
50 |
Eclipse IP |
44 |
Olivistar |
42 |
Graham Springs |
38 |
Shipping and Transit |
35 |
UrgenSync |
33 |
Avioniqs |
31 |
CryptoPeak Solutions |
29 |
Qommerce Systems |
28 |
Nonend Inventions |
26 |
Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations |
26 |
Turn IP |
23 |
Symbology Innovations |
22 |
Azure Networks |
21 |
LGRT Pro |
20 |
Rothschild Location Technologies |
20 |
Venadium |
20 |
Source: Docket Navigator |
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