NPE Filings Increased in Q3 2020, but Design Patent Plaintiffs Were the Most Litigious
October 14, 2020
RPX data show that the third quarter of 2020 saw a massive and unprecedented spike in patent litigation asserting purely design patents, comprising more than 1,670 defendants added—or 67.8% of the total amount of litigation filed in Q3.
However, even when excluding cases asserting only design patents, the data reveal that NPE litigation was still up in Q3. NPEs added 519 defendants to campaigns in the third quarter, or 5.5% more than in Q3 2019 (during which they added 492 defendants) but 16.7% less than in Q2 2020 (during which they added 623 defendants). In Q3 2020, NPEs beat the trailing Q3 average by 2.6% and were responsible for 65.3% of the patent litigation filed during the quarter.
Meanwhile, operating companies accounted for 34.7% of the patent litigation filed in Q3 2020, adding 276 defendants—1.1% more than they did in the same quarter last year, but 24.8% less than the Q3 2016-2019 average.
| Defendants Added | Change Compared to: | ||||
| Q3 2020 | Q3 2019 | Q3 2016-2019 Average | Q2 2020 | ||
| NPE | 519 | +5.5% | +2.6% | -16.7% | |
| Operating Company | 276 | +1.1% | -24.8% | -31.2% | |
| Total | 795 | +3.9% | -8.9% | -22.4% | |
In total, patent litigation still went up in the third quarter compared to the same period last year (again, excluding design patent-only cases): 795 defendants were added to patent campaigns in Q3 2020, an increase of 3.9% over Q3 2019 (during which 765 defendants were added), though filings decreased by 22.4% from Q2 2020 (during which 1,024 defendants were added). Third-quarter 2020 filing levels were below the Q3 2016-2019 average by 8.9%.
For more details on this and other trends, see RPX’s third-quarter review.
