Disputes charts & datasets

Disputes charts available and how to interpret them

The disputes section has twelve datasets allowing a wide set of analysis. Simply click the disputes section of your report dashboard to view all of the disputes charts available in your report. (for information on why you may only see four dispute charts in the report you've created, click here .)

Saved Chart Set

You can add any chart in Classification to a saved list of charts by selecting the tick in the bottom right of the chart icon wherever you see it. 

To access your selected charts, click the 'tick' icon in the top left of your report screen. To save your selected charts to a 'chart set', click the three dots in the top right of this view and select 'Save selection as chart set'. You can then give the 'chart set' a name. For more information on saved charts, click here .

Difference between litigations and disputes

We have chosen to distinguish between litigations and disputes depending on the data they analyse. Classification’s dispute data consists of, and is broken down as follows:

Litigations

• US Patent litigation (federal courts) , with start and end dates, patents involved, per patent outcomes and links to underlying court documents (if available)
• GB Patent Litigation (all courts) with end dates, patents involved (if available)
• Netherlands Patent Litigation with end dates, patents involved (if available)
• French Patent Litigation with end dates, patents involved (if available)
• German Patent Litigation with end dates, patents involved (if available)
• Chinese Patent Litigation with start and end dates, patents involved and court documents (if available)
• Japanese Patent Litigation with end dates, patents involved (if available)

Disputes

• US PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board), covering all proceedings (IPR, DER, CBM), with start and end dates, patents involved and links to underlying court documents (if available)
• US ITC (International Trade Commission) with start and end dates, patents involved and links to underlying court documents (if available)
• German Invalidation proceedings with end dates and the patents involved.

Please note that -

• The count is based on patent-related disputes only.
• The outcome of the cases is tallied according to Settled, Won, Lost, Active or Other.
• Where an organisation has not incurred disputes, they are not listed.
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It's important to note that the current organisation listed in the dispute data in Classification, does not necessarily have to have been a party in the dispute. The plaintiff and defendant listed were involved at the time of the dispute however the 'organisation' listed (owner) may have acquired the patent family since the dispute. It is quite common that organisations acquire patent families as a 'threat neutralisation strategy’. For this reason, the owner may sometimes be the same as the defendant listed.

Availability of Disputes Datasets in each type of report

You will have access to a different number of Disputes datasets depending on the type of report you have created:

Organisation report and clustering/Quick Organisation search

If you start with an organisation search applying clustering or a quick organisation search, Classification will extract full litigation data allowing access to all twelve Dispute datasets/charts. By starting with an organisation search, the data within the report is not limited to a particular technology meaning that all dispute and litigation data for the organisations is included within the report. As an example, this means that the chart 'Disputes table cross' showing the total counts of disputes between the organisations is available to add to the report from the Disputes dataset.

Other report type - dispute data relating to PART of a portfolio

If you start with another type of report such as a report incorporating classifiers, patent upload, key word search, Landscape report, or Auto instant insights report, Classification will retrieve litigation information on litigated patent families only. The charts available for litigated patent families only are:

Dispute datasets Descriptions

Below is a description of each chart to help to choose the relevant ones for your analysis.

Litigated patent families - by organisation

This dataset shows how many patent families have been involved in disputes that are currently owned by any organisation in your report. Please note the organisation in your report may not have been the plaintiff or defendant in the dispute listed in these charts; they are just the current owner. It is quite common that organisations acquire patent families as a 'threat neutralisation strategy' and this does also cover patent families owned by subsidiaries.

Litigated patent families - by technology

This dataset shows how many patent families have been involved in disputes, split by the technologies in your report. Please note the owning organisation of the patent families of these disputes, may not have been the plaintiff or defendant in the dispute listed in these charts; they are just the current owner. It is quite common that organisations acquire patent families as a 'threat neutralisation strategy' and this does also cover patent families owned by subsidiaries.

Litigated patent families - by organisation and technology

This dataset shows how many patent families have been involved in disputes that are currently owned by any organisation in your report, also split by technologies in your report. Please note the organisation in your report may not have been the plaintiff or defendant in the dispute listed in these charts; they are just the current owner. It is quite common that organisations acquire patent families as a 'threat neutralisation strategy' and this does also cover patent families owned by subsidiaries.

Defendant Litigations, by year

Number of litigations per year, where an organisation (or its subsidiaries) is a defendant. Each litigation is only counted by the earliest year we have data for it. This is usually the start year, but may be the end year if only the end date is known.

This chart is useful for seeing the trend in litigations over time i.e. is a certain organisation being sued more or less in certain time periods or less than a peer group.
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Plaintiff Litigations, by year

Number of litigations per year, where an organisation (or its subsidiaries) is a plaintiff. Each litigation is only counted by the earliest year we have data for it. This is usually the start year, but may be the end year if only the end date is known.

This chart is useful for seeing the trend in litigations over time i.e. is a certain organisation actively suing more or less in certain time periods and more or less than a peer group?
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Defendant Litigations, by territory

Number of litigations per territory, where an organisation (or its subsidiaries) is a defendant.

This chart is useful to see in which countries the organisation is subject to disputes i.e. is it only in a certain territory or globally?

Handy Hint:
Filter to the organisation of interest in the 'Organisations' filter in the top right of your report, to review the number of litigations per territory for that Organisation only.
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Plaintiff Litigations, by territory

Number of litigations per territory, where an organisation (or its subsidiaries) is a plaintiff.

This chart is useful to see in which countries the organisation is the plaintiff in disputes i.e. is it only in a certain territory or globally?

Handy Hint:
Filter to the organisation of interest in the 'Organisations' filter in the top right of your report, to review the number of litigations per territory for that Organisation only.

Disputes, defendant-side

Overview of disputes where an organisation (or its subsidiary) is a defendant. The summary table provides total counts of defendant-side disputes and breaks them down by outcome. The disputes table shows detailed information on each of the disputes.

This chart shows detailed overviews of the disputes that an organisation was part of, and also allows for further details of each individual dispute by clicking 'details', which leads through to patent and party details and court documents if available.

You can filter by type of dispute (e.g. PTAB vs. Litigation) and also whether an NPE was involved. This data can be downloaded for further analysis/manipulation.

You can also filter based on geographies by using the geographic filter. Please be aware that technology filters are not applicable here as organisations get sued in many areas where they themselves do not have patents and the clusters you see in the report relate to patents owned by the organisation(s) and not patents used against them in in lawsuits. If you want to know more about the technologies covered by litigated patents, please use the Defendant Litigation Export Report.
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Disputes, plaintiff-side

Overview of disputes where an organisation (or its subsidiary) is a plaintiff. The summary table provides total counts of plaintiff-side disputes and breaks them down by outcome. The disputes table shows detailed information on each of the disputes.
This chart shows detailed overviews of the disputes that an organisation was part of, and also allows for further details of each individual dispute by clicking 'details', which leads through to patent and party details and court documents if available.

You can filter by type of dispute (e.g. PTAB vs. Litigation) and also whether an NPE was involved. This data can be downloaded for further analysis/manipulation.

One tip here is regarding NPEs as defendants. This does happen within the US patent system and most commonly a so called Declaratory Judgement suit, where the plaintiff essentially “forces” the NPE into court, this is one form of risk mitigation and/or litigation tactic employed by certain operating companies.

Handy Hint:

You can also filter based on geographies by using the geographic filter. Please be aware that technology filters are not applicable here as organisations get sued in many areas where they themselves do not have patents and the clusters you see in the report relate to patents owned by the organisation(s) and not patents used against them in in lawsuits. If you want to know more about the technologies covered by litigated patents, please use the Plaintiff Litigation Export Report.
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Disputes, cross

View of cross disputes between the selected organisations. The summary table provides total counts of disputes. The disputes table shows detailed information on each of the mutual disputes.

This chart is designed to help you understand if there are any countersuits or cross-litigations happening amongst your selected set of organisations.

Cross-litigation is not that common but does occur in hotly contested and patent dense product areas e.g. mobile phones (the so called "mobile phone wars") or semiconductors.

Disputes, by families

Overview of disputes with patent families belonging to an organisation. The summary table provides total counts of disputes and breaks them down by outcome. The disputes table shows detailed information on each of the disputes.

This table is linked to the litigated patent families datasets. It outlines all disputes where the litigated patent families have been involved. You will see columns telling you who the current owner is ("Portfolio") and the two parties in the dispute. It's worth noting that the current owner does not necessarily have to be a party in the dispute.

Litigations, offensive versus defensive

Overall count of both plaintiff-side and defendant-side litigations by organisation(s) and its subsidiaries.

This chart is a visual aid to see whether an organisation is primarily asserting their patents (plaintiffs) or being asserted against (defendant). Most organisation would have more defendant disputes than plaintiff disputes. If the balance is the other way around that is an indication of an organisation that's quite aggressively using their patents.