Patent lawsuits dominate in the technology industry in status quo, with over half filed by NPEs

[AON, risk and human capital firm, 7-18-23, AON, “How Current IP Patent Litigation Trends are Changing Risk Exposures,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

3. Patent Lawsuits are Dominating the Technology Industry

In an increasingly digitalized world, industries are continuing to upgrade their operations and service delivery models to remain competitive. As a result, new players are now entering new industries and territories. This exponentially increases the risk of patent litigation for the technology and software sector.

Technology companies continued to suffer the largest share of patent lawsuits in H1 2023 at 42 percent of the actions filed. Software and data processing companies were defendants in 15 percent of all patent lawsuits with parties that could be mapped to an industry. The largest damage awarded in H1 2023 was $470 million and for 2022, it was $950 million, both levied against technology giants4.

Aside from the latest trends in the technology industry, the automotive industry has experienced the longest continued growth in the number of suits, with an increase of 150 percent from 2019 to 2022. This can be attributed to the industry’s growing dependence on sophisticated technology, including the production of electric and self-driving vehicles. Other industries where suits increased were B2B services, retail and semiconductors5.

51%

In H1 2023, roughly 51 percent of cases were filed by NPEs, which is significantly higher than the proportion of NPE suits in H1s over the past 10 years.