Samsung – a multinational electronics corporation – filed 106,392 patent applications and was one of the top patent portfolio holders between 2019 and 2022. Based on Nasdaq report, the South Korean company has filed patents around such technologies as multi-camera solutions, 5G, 6G as well as ultra-wideband wireless communications protocol that were further commercialized in Galaxy smartphones, smartwatches, and network equipment. According to the number of issued applications, the inventor was ahead of companies such as Huawei, Qualcomm, LG Electronics, State Grid, or Canon.
In the selected time frame, the number of applications issued by the top patent holder increased on average by 2%. The most prolific growth was between 2019 and 2020 when the number of filings jumped from 24,783 to 28,161 and accounted for almost 14%.
Looking at the geographical distribution of the filings, Samsung had the largest number of patents in the United States (34,114), followed by Korea (27,849), China (12,620), and Europe (9,469). In other countries, the South Korean electronic corporation had 22,340 patents. The last number also includes 12,885 filed through WIPO.
Out of the total number of patent applications issued by Samsung, 53,280 were direct filings and 53,112 filings went through the international route, or, in other words, were PCT based.
Accounting for the number of prosecuted patent filings, Y.P.LEE, MOCK & PARTNERS (3,990), YOON & LEE (2,726), LEE & KWON INTELLECTUAL LAW GROUP (1,448), KORYO INTERNATIONAL PATENT & LAW OFFICE (1,272), and K.J.LEE PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE (1,101) were among the key domestic representatives of the top patent holder. Concurrently, the same associates were involved in sending the client’s cases to international partners.
The majority of the corporation’s cases (one case includes all the filings which belong to the same patent family and were represented by the same agent) went to US IP law firms (19,175). Associates from China (10,829), Germany (3,058), and Great Britain (2,886) also received substantial volumes from the aforementioned South Korean representatives of the priority applications.
Samsung: Exchange of patent cases between local and top European representatives
Case exchange data compiled by IP Pilot shows that SUGHRUE MION, PLLC (2,655), JEFFERSON IP LAW, LLP (2,003), MUNCK WILSON MANDALA, LLP (1,890), and HARNESS, DICKEY & PIERCE, P.L.C. (1,454) were the main representatives of Samsung cases in the United States. In China, LIU, SHEN & ASSOCIATES (3,401), MING & YUE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW FIRM (2,226), CHINA SCIENCE PATENT & TRADEMARK AGENT were the top receivers of the work. As for the European Patent Office, German and British representatives such as GULDE & PARTNER PATENT- UND RECHTSANWALTSKANZLEI MBB (1,727), KUHNEN & WACKER (1071), HGF LIMITED (824), APPLEYARD LEES (732), and VENNER SHIPLEY LLP (524) topped the rank (see the chart above).
According to an advanced Decision Maker algorithm developed by IP Pilot, in almost 100% of cases, the top patent holder was instructing the priority firms as to which international partner they should send the cases to.