Patexia Insight 41: Most Valuable Patents
Last year, we published a list of the most litigated patents (Patexia Insight 8). Most of these patents did not survive, with the number of attacks faced by various entities. However, this week, we are releasing our list of the top 5 most valuable patents.
The basis for the value here is validity. As you surely know, patent value depends on infringement, market size, and of course, validity. Lately, IPR has brought about environment of uncertainty for patent owners. More often than not, patents (once instituted ) fail to survive to tell the tale.
Without further ado, take a look at the following five patents that have been through many IPRs, with none of their claims being canceled after the Final Written Decision by the PTAB judges.
Each of the above patents were challenged in several IPR cases and all of them were successfully instituted at least once. Some even more than once. However, none of the instituted claims were canceled. Our analysis indicates that more than 90% of the instituted claims are invalidated. What makes these patents even more valuable is the fact that they were challenged more than once (at least 6 to 9 times). Yet, not a single challenge put a dent in them.
The following table provides the names of the patent owners, together with additional information regarding the patents - based on the petitions filed before the PTAB.
|
No. |
Patent No. | IPR Counts | Title | Patent Owner | Issue Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Light emitting panel assemblies | Innovative Display Technologies LLC | 2008-07-29 | |
| 2 | 6,012,007 | 6 | Occupant detection method and apparatus for air bag system | Marathon Patent Group | 2000-01-04 |
| 3 | 6,314,409 | 6 | System for controlling access and distribution of digital property | Intellectual Ventures | 2001-11-06 |
| 4 | 8,144,18 | 6 | Real time video communications system | Biscotti Inc. | 2012-03-27 |
|
5 |
6 | Anticonvulsant enantiomeric amino acid derivatives | Research Corporation Technologies | 2004-07-06 |
Note that none of the claims of these patents have been canceled thus far. Given that there is no presumption of validity when it comes to IPR, and the petitioners dedicated the time and resources required to look for the best piece of prior art, claims of these patents are some of the strongest around.
We reviewed all 6,580 IPR cases - filed from the start on September 16th, 2012, through the end of 2017’s second quarter. We identified 121 such patents, all of which were challenged by at least one IPR which was instituted and later received the final written decision.
As we stated earlier, a patent’s value is set based on three key factors:
1. Validity
2. Evidence of use (infringement)
3. Market size
The first two factors (validity and infringement) are binary conditions; meaning they are able to drive the value to zero if they are not “TRUE”. For example, if a patent is not valid or not infringed, it is automatically rendered worthless. Market size is the factor with the ability to set the price (dollar amount) for the patent.
We have proven that the majority of IPR petitions are filed as a response to a District Court Lawsuit - meaning the petitioner has most likely been sued by the patent owner for alleged infringement. Therefore, once these patents pass the very high bar of validity set by the PTAB, they will prove highly valuable should they address a large market.
A few weeks ago, we released our first comprehensive IPR Intelligence Report under our newly launched Patexia Insights platform. All these 121 patents have been listed in the report, which comes in three different flavors. Over the next few weeks, we will share our analysis of the most active and top-performing law firms, representing petitioners and patent owners. The Silver Edition of our report (which contains this valuable list) can be downloaded directly from our IP Insights platform.
Should you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at any time.