NPEs Remained Busy Last Quarter Despite a Dip from Q1 2021
April 13, 2022
NPEs added 525 defendants to patent litigation campaigns in the first quarter of 2022—11% below Q1 2021, which at 589 defendants was uncharacteristically active. However, NPEs still had their second busiest first quarter since 2015 and exceeded the trailing Q1 three-quarter average by 23%.
The most litigious NPE plaintiff in Q1 2022 was once again patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC. For the past two years, plaintiffs controlled by IP Edge have added around 150 defendants per quarter. Excluding IP Edge, NPEs added 381 defendants, down 13% from the first quarter of last year but almost exactly in line with the Q1 average from 2016-2021.
| Defendants Added | Change Compared to: | ||||
| Q1 2022 | Q1 2021 | Q1 2018-2020 Average | Q4 2021 | ||
| NPE | 525 | -10.9% | 22.9% | -2.8% | |
| Operating Company | 274 | 9.6% | -19.6% | -10.2% | |
| Total | 799 | -4.8% | 4.0% | -5.4% | |
Overall, plaintiffs added 799 defendants to patent litigation campaigns in Q1, slightly below the first quarter of 2021 and slightly above the trailing Q1 average.
See RPX’s first-quarter review for more on this and other trends impacting patent litigation and the patent marketplace.
