EPO Releases Annual Report on 2017 Patent Activity: Interesting Stats

The EPO has released its annual report for 2017 patenting activity.  Notably, patenting and patent filings are trending up at 3.9% and 4.4% respectively.  In the electrical engineering field, patenting is up in the audio visual space by 10.6% and semiconductors by 13.5%.  In instruments, patenting is up in optics by 15.6% and analysis of biological materials by 12.5%.  In chemistry, biotechnology is up 14.5%, but micro-structural and nanotechnology is down by 12.6%.  Interestingly, US nationals as first inventor lead patent applications in the EPO with a 26% share.  The EU member state inventors as a whole have more nationals as first inventor (47% total).  However, Germany, the leader in the EU, has a 15% share.  Japan has 13%, and China has 5%.  The top three technical fields in patent applications are 1) medical technology; 2) digital communication; and 3) computer technology.  The top ten applicant companies are: 1) Huawei (China); 2) Siemens (EU); 3) LG (Korea); 4) Samsung (Korea); 5) Qualcomm (US); 6) Royal Phillips (EU); 7) United Technologies (US); 8) Intel (US); 9) Robert Bosch (EU); and 10) Ericsson (EU).  Sixty-nine percent of the total applicants are large entities.  Twenty-four percent are SMEs/individual inventors.  Seven percent were universities/public research.  Interestingly, SMEs/individual inventors share is down from 28% in 2016.  Universities/public research is up 1 percentage point from 2016. 

US Supreme Court ruling on exhaustion worries lots of people

An article, "US Supreme Court decision on patent exhaustion worries TTOs", appears in the August issue of the subscription-only journal Technology Transfer Tactics. It discusses the US Supreme Court decision on patent exhaustion in June in Quanta Computers, Inc. v LG Electronics, Inc. The court ruled, in essence, that the application of the doctrine of patent exhaustion meant that LG could not control the downstream use of technology that it had licensed to Intel. That technology was used in Intel chips that were later sold to Quanta and other computer manufacturers. The decision means that LG cannot seek royalty payments from Quanta or other computer makers that purchased components produced by Intel under its licensing agreement with LG. Experts agree that this decision, while not in fact earth-shattering, underscores the need for strategic thinking when formulating licensing strategy and deciding how to implement it.