Apple is patent suit target No. 1 as toll of the trolls grows

Apple, Amazon and Google were among the most sued companies in new patent litigation last year while the need for reform was debated from Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C.

"Patent litigation continues to increase and the increase is being driven by plaintiffs that are very involved in litigation," saidOwen Byrd, general counsel at litigation analysis company Lex Machina.

His Menlo Park-based firm's annual patent suit report shows the number of new patent suits filed in 2013 increased 12 .4 percent to 6,092 cases while average damages awarded jumped by 28 percent to $34.7 million.

While the names of the 10 most sued companies are easily recognized, few outside of patent litigation circles would know the 10 who filed the most patent suits.

The most sued companies were Apple (59 cases), Amazon (50), AT&T (45), Google (39), Dell (38), HTC (38), Samsung (38),Microsoft (35), LG (34) and Hewlett-Packard (34).

The plaintiffs who filed the most suits were Melvino Technologies/ArrivalStar (137 cases), Wyncomm (131), Thermolife International (117), Eclipse IP (67), Innovative Wireless Solutions (63), UbiComm (61), Long Corner Security (53), Princeton Digital Image (49), e.Digital (47) and Data Carriers (47).

"The good news is that there weren't a lot of cases going to trial relative to the number of cases filed," Byrd said. "The high profiles cases like Apple-Samsung may lead people to think that a lot of these cases are going to trial but the reality is that not many of them do."

Another piece of good news for patent lawsuit defendants is that the number of cases thrown out by district courts because the patents were deemed too vague has also increased.

"That could be because there are too many weak patents being granted or it could be district court judges reading the tea leaves of what the Supreme Court may allow in the future," Byrd said. The high court is considering what constitutes patentable subject matter in a case on its docket.

Meanwhile, Folsom's Internet Patents is being asked to return most of its cash stash back to shareholders. Internet Patents Corp. is in the sole business of defending the patents from its original business, InsWeb.

Barry Honig, a large shareholder in the company, wrote an open letter to Internet Patents CEO Hussein Enan. Honig contends the company’s stated strategy does not have a bright future in light of adverse court decisions, so the company is now just burning its cash.

Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal.

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