Most Litigious NPE's of All Time

Joff Wild over at the IAM Blog recently chatted with Dan McCurdy, chairman of PatentFreedom and CEO of Allied Security Trust, who is issuing a list of the most litigious non-practicing entities (aka "patent trolls") for the next issue of IAM Magazine.

Who are the most trigger-happy NPE patentees? According to McCurdy the most active companies in the U.S. are:

(1) Acacia Technologies (link) - 308 cases total, 239 cases since 2003;

(2) Rates Technology Inc. - 130 cases total, but only 38 cases since 2002;

(3) Millennium IP (link) - 99 cases total, 90 cases since 2003;

(4) Cygnus Telecommunications Technology - 69 cases total, 31 cases since 2003;

(5) General Patent Corp International (link) - 66 cases total, 36 cases since
2003;

(6) Plutus IP (link) - 59 cases total (all of those filed since 2003);

(7) Papst Licensing GmbH - 59 cases total, 31 cases since 2003;

(8) F&G Research - 56 cases total, 51 cases since 2003;

(9) Ronald A Katz Technology Licensing (link) - 54 cases total, 48 cases since 2003;

(10) Catch Curve (link) - 53 cases total, 36 cases since 2003.

Favorite NPE jurisdictions include:

1) E.D. Texas (surprise!)

2) N.D. California

3) C.D. California

4) S.D. New York

5) N.D. Illinois

Also, the research found that, for the 2007 year, 16.6% of all U.S. patent litigation involved NPEs. In 1997, the figure had stood at 2.4%.

See Joff Wild "Acacia tops troll litigaition league" (link)