The Truth Behind Patent Trolls

Hypothesis 1: Most Patent Assertion Entities are drivers of innovation, and incorrectly labeled as patent trolls.

Method 1: Find list of PAEs, sort by location, number of lawsuits filed, damages. Need to control for size of company and sector.

Top 10 PAEs in 2015, according to (Unified)

• First number in parentheses indicates number of total patent cases in 2015, second number indicates number of cases in 2015 that are filed in E.D. Texas
• List of top 10 PAEs taken from Unified, but number of patent cases taken from Lex Machina)

1) Edekka LLC (101 total cases in 2015; 101 in E.D. Texas)

2) Data Carriers LLC (85; 85)

3) Shipping and Transit LLC (69; 0 - cases mainly split between C.D. Cal and S.D. Fla)

4) Cryptopeak Solutions LLC (66; 66)

5) Wetro Lan LLC (56; 55)

6) Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations LLC (60;59)

7) Hawk Technology Systems LLC (61;3)

8) Loramax LLC (50; 50)

9) Genaville LLC (50; 50)

10) Oberalis LLC (50; 50)

648 total cases, 519 in E.D. Tex. 80.09% of all patent litigation cases filed in 2015 were filed in E.D. Texas.

How do you determine where you can file your patent cases? What is the Judge Gilstrap's rate for number of patent litigation cases where the defendant wins?

Hypothesis 2: Patent litigation is increasing, but only because of the uncertain nature of technological developments and how patent claims apply to that. Patent litigation surges are consistent with major shifts in technological developments

• High tech is the only sector where a majority of cases were NPE related

Method: Find a reliable graph of developments within the technology sector and match it to the one below [1]:

Interesting facts that may deserve extra research

• Historically, the Eastern District of Texas is the top patent dispute venue. In 2015, 44% of all patent litigation was filed in E.D. Texas, most of which were assigned to Judge Rodney Gilstrap