Samsung Tops Australian Patent Grants for 2019, with Local Innovators Nowhere to be Seen

In my previous two articles I looked at entries to the Australian patent system in 2019, i.e. who filed new applications last year, and which patent attorney firms were the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the filing stakes.  These numbers tell us something about the current state of the market, and which companies are innovating – and seeking to protect their innovations – right now.  Many people, however, are more interested in who has been obtaining granted patent rights, rather than who might obtain granted rights in a few years’ time.  Indeed, the unveiling of the top recipients of US patents by IFI Claims Patent Services has become something of an annual event, generating considerable media interest, and the now-familiar sight of IBM sitting at the top of the list (for 27 consecutive years).

According to IFI Claims, there were 333,530 new US patents issued in 2019.  Patently-O’s Dennis Crouch, on the other hand, puts the number at 354,507, while a search on the USPTO’s own database (using the query string ‘ISD/20190101->20191231 and APT/1’) returns a count of 354,446.  Who to believe?!  Whichever number is correct, 2019 established a new all-time high, at about 10% above the previous record set in 2017.

I do not expect there to be quite as much interest in the fact that 17,007 Australian standard patents were granted in 2019.  This was not a new record.  In fact, it was slightly lower than 2018, when 17,065 standard patents were granted, and well below the 2016 peak of 23,774.  It should be kept in mind, however, that a surge in patent grants between 2014 and 2017 was driven largely by the behaviour of applicants bringing forward requests for examination prior to commencement of the Raising the Bar reforms on 15 April 2013, so the past couple of years should represent a more normal rate of patent issuance based on the underlying filings and examination requests.

Samsung topped the list of patent recipients in Australia with 203 patents, followed by Covidien (150), Apple (137), LG Electronics (132), and Huawei (119).  Not one Australian patentee appeared in the top 50, although New Zealand’s Fisher & Paykel Healthcare just squeezed in at number 48, albeit with just 35 patents.  By way of comparison, in 2019 Samsung obtained 6,469 US patents (ranked 2^nd), Covidien 92 (68^th), Apple 2,490 (7^th), LG 2,805 (6^th), and Huawei 2,418 (10^th).

A notable absence from the top end of the rankings is Aristocrat which, despite filing a total of 722 standard patent applications between 2015 and 2018 received only 13 granted patents in 2019, in second place among Australian patentees behind national research organisation CSIRO with 25.  In fact, the top 30 Australian patentees combined received only 162 patents in 2019, or 31 fewer than Samsung.

Overall, despite being consistently the second largest filing group (after US residents) Australians were only the fifth most numerous recipients of Australian patents in 2019, with just 908 patents, behind Germans (937), Chinese (1,035), Japanese (1,257), and US residents (8,139).  So it seems that Australians are shunning our own patent system, which might not be such bad news if there were any sign that Australian applicants were securing patent protection in major export markets.  This does not, however, appear to be the case.  IFI Claims lists only the top nine countries in its public summary of US patent trends, from which Australia is absent, placing the country somewhere behind ninth-placed Canada, which received 4,651 US patents in 2019.

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Tags: Australia, Patent analytics, Samsung

Apple/Google End ‘Thermonuclear’ War – But What of Samsung?

Apple and Google have announced in a joint statement that they have ‘agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies’ and ‘to work together in some areas of patent reform.’

The statement goes on to say that ‘[t]he agreement does not include a cross license.’

The settlement is symbolically significant.  It has been widely accepted, since the commencement of Apple’s various patent lawsuits against Android-based handset makers back in 2010, that the ‘true’ target of all this litigation was Google, as the provider of the Android operating system.  This was confirmed in Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs, which revealed the late Apple CEO’s strong animosity towards Google, including his infamous vow to ‘go thermonuclear war’ to ‘destroy Android’.

At the time, however, Apple faced a challenge in striking directly against Google, which did not actually manufacture and sell any Android-based products of its own.  Rather than pursue some complex (and potentially unsuccessful) indirect infringement theory against Google itself, Apple chose to attack Android by suing manufacturers, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung, which it saw as responsible for direct infringement of its patents.

Now, more than four years after Apple’s ‘first strike’ against Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, it is very clear that Android has not been, and will not be, ‘destroyed’ by patent litigation.  On the contrary, in Q1 2014, 81% of smartphones shipped were Android-based, while just 16% ran Apple’s iOS.  Tit-for-tat lawsuits have ultimately resulted in little more than a growing series of stalemates, the most recent of which was a ruling in the dispute between Apple and Samsung in California earlier this month which is widely regarded as inconsequential to both parties.

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Tags: Apple, Google, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone wars

How PatentlyApple Harms Patents – Including Apple’s

Up until now I have had an informal, unwritten policy of not critiquing other blogs.  After all, I know as well as anyone just how much hard work goes into maintaining a blog, coming up with ideas for articles, and finding the time and energy to actually write them.  Anybody who does that deserves a certain degree of respect, even if I happen to disagree with everything they say!  After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However, there are opinions, and then there are facts.  And when a widely read blog consistently posts false or misleading information, there is absolutely no good reason not to call them on it.  This is particularly true when that misinformation has the potential to influence views in a matter of significant public interest, such as the debate over the merits (or otherwise) of patents for computer-implemented inventions (please note that I am deliberately avoiding the meaningless term ‘software patents’).

One blog with which I have a huge problem in this regard is PatentlyApple.  For those unfamiliar with the blog, it is an overtly partisan celebration of all things (allegedly and actually) innovative at Apple, Inc.  Occasionally, this involves spiteful attacks on all things (allegedly and actually) imitative at Apple’s competitors, such as Samsung and Microsoft.  However, it is not these matters of opinion or rhetoric with which I have a problem.

My big issue with PatentlyApple is the way in which it consistently misconstrues and misrepresents the content and scope of the patents and applications – of Apple and others – which it purports to explain.  The reason for this is simple – PatentlyApple is not written by a patent attorney.  The fact is that it takes many years of training and experience to interpret a patent specification, and particularly the claims, which are ultimately determinative when it comes to assessing what the patent covers.  And having typically spent a number of illustrated paragraphs purportedly explaining to a large audience what a patent application is all about, PatentlyApple’s disclaimer that it is necessary to read the ‘full text’ of the document to obtain complete details just does not cut it!

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Tags: Apple, Claim construction, Computer programs, Innovation, Microsoft, Patents and society, Samsung