Global Patent Solutions Blog

Apple's Prolific Patent Portfolio -- (Try saying that 5 times fast)

  

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Nokia is suing Apple, Apple is suing HTC, Qualcomm is suing Nokia, Elan is suing Apple, Apple and Motorola are suing each other…it’s hard to keep straight who’s suing whom, but one thing is for sure, Apple is in the middle of it. According to Hoovers, “Apple has an "i" for revolutionary technology. Since its release, the company's iPhone has spurred a revolution in cell phones and mobile computing. It also continues to innovate its core Mac desktop and laptop computers -- all of which feature its OS X operating system -- including the iMac all-in-one desktop and MacBook portable for the consumer and education markets, and the high-end Mac Pro and MacBook Pro for consumers and professionals involved in design and publishing. Apple scored a runaway hit with its digital music players (iPod) and online music store (iTunes). Its iPad tablet computer could become another game-changer in the consumer market. Apple gets more than half of its sales from outside the US.” Apple inc. holds over 16,000 patents worldwide, and almost 10,000 patents/filings from the US, DE, GB, FR, JP, PCT or EPO (not including patents not yet assigned). If you reduce those almost 10,000 patents down to just one representative family member, there are just over 4000 patents. Interestingly, of the over 2300 unique (i.e. reduced to one representative family member) US utility or design patents that Apple has, only 30 are, or have been, involved in litigation of some sort.

Shown below is a 2D Bar Chart  of “Patent Count vs Main IPC Class”, and a 2D Bar Chart of the “Patent Count vs Year” for the over 4000 representative family members in the patents/filings from US, DE, GB, FR, JP, PCT or EPO.

2D Bar Chart (Patent count vs. Main IPC class)

 IPC Titles (In order of highest patent count)

Although Apple’s IP portfolio is fairly broad, the vast majority of their patents reside in IPC G06F, Electric Digital Data Processing.

2D Bar Chart (Patent count vs. Year)

Apple has had an extensive patent portfolio for quite a while, and from 1994-2011 they have really been prolific in the IP realm, especially 2008-2010. Who knows what the rest of 2011 may bring.

- A.S.