Non practicing entities brought 102 of the 163 suits and operating companies brought 59. The two populations do not overlap in technology. Assertions over the device itself, memory cells and semiconductor structure, come from competitors. Assertions over the interfaces around it come from entities holding acquired portfolios.
Of the 124 companies sued here, 22 appear elsewhere in this data as an asserting party. That is 17.7%, and it means a defensive portfolio finds a target more often here than it does in software and internet, at 11%, or consumer goods, at 8.6%.
The patents the two sides bring are almost the same size. Average family runs 14.1 members for non practicing assertions and 14.6 for operating companies. Age separates them instead: a median 11.5 years from grant to suit against 5.6, with 84.8% of the non practicing patents acquired rather than filed by the asserter.
What this cannot tell you. The dataset records filings, parties and asserted patents, not results, so settlement rates, IPR institution rates and dismissal figures all fall outside it. Nothing here describes what a matter costs to defend or how it ends.
Using this on a live matter
Three questions answerable from public records in the first hour after a complaint or demand letter arrives, and what each answer usually means in this industry.
Which layer is accused?
Memory and semiconductor structure patents, G11C and H01L, are asserted by operating companies 72% of the time across 64 patents. The two network classes, H04L and H04W, are asserted by non practicing entities 83% of the time across 102. The accused layer identifies the likely adversary before the asserter is researched.
Does the asserter appear as a defendant anywhere?
Twenty two of the 124 companies sued here also assert patents. Semiconductor disputes run in both directions, and three of the four most recent competitor filings involve parties that have sued each other. Checking the asserter's own exposure is worth the hour it takes.
How old is the patent?
Non practicing assertions reach court a median 11.5 years after grant and 20.0 years after the earliest priority date. Operating companies assert at a median 5.6 years. A patent approaching the end of its term points strongly toward an acquired portfolio.
Who is doing the asserting
of classified cases came from entities that hold patents without building products.
That sits close to software and internet at 74.6% and well below telecommunications at 88.0%. The absolute count matters more than the share here. 66 distinct non practicing entities filed against semiconductor defendants in this window, second only to software and internet.
The largest single asserter brought seven cases. No entity dominates this docket the way one does in financial services.
Counting all 163 filings brings the non practicing share to 62.6%.
What a defensive portfolio reaches
A portfolio held for deterrence works by giving the other side something to lose if it is sued back. The mechanism needs an opponent whose own products can infringe.
semiconductor companies sued here also appear in this data as an asserting party.
The comparable figure is 8.6% in consumer goods, 4.3% in telecommunications and 1.2% in retail. Semiconductor firms hold portfolios built for exactly this purpose, and the record shows them used. On 10 August 2026 Micron and Netlist filed against each other on the same day.
Deterrence still reaches only part of the docket. The 66 non practicing entities that filed here sell nothing, so a countersuit on the defendant's own patents has no target in 62.6% of matters.
Counterassertion bears on the 36.2% of cases operating companies bring, and that share is worth more here than the same share elsewhere because the parties are equipped to use it.
Who is getting sued
Fifteen companies with market capitalization above $200 billion absorbed 33 of the 163 cases. Privately held defendants account for 33.7% of the docket.
Cases by defendant size
163 cases across 124 distinct semiconductor and electronics defendants.
This is a docket aimed at public companies. Listed defendants absorbed 108 of the 163 cases, against 25% in consumer goods. The fifteen largest faced 2.2 suits each on average. Capital structure tracks exposure closely here, which follows from where the revenue that supports a damages claim sits.
What they assert on
Most asserted patents carry a primary CPC subclass. The six largest account for 69% of everything brought against semiconductor defendants, and the split by asserter type divides the device from the network around it.
Asserted patents by technology area
403 patents with a primary CPC classification, split by asserting party type.
G06F24.1% of asserted patentsH04L13.4%H04W11.9%G11C8.2%H01L7.7%H04N3.7%Two kinds of asserted patent
Patents asserted by non practicing entities differ from those asserted by operating companies on attributes visible in the public record. Family size does not separate them here, and age does.
| Attribute | Asserted by NPEs | Asserted by op. co. | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share acquired rather than original | 84.8% | 24.4% | −60.4 pts |
| Median years from grant to suit | 11.5 | 5.6 | 2.1× |
| Median years from priority to suit | 20.0 | 13.2 | 1.5× |
| Average simple family size | 14.1 | 14.6 | level |
| Share that are continuations | 43.1% | 56.6% | +13.5 pts |
Two years of filings
Cases filed per quarter against semiconductor and electronics defendants
By asserting party type. 2026 Q3 is partial and the data ends 10 August 2026.
Volume doubled across eight quarters, from 23 cases in 2024 Q3 to 47 in 2026 Q2. Non practicing filings carried most of that, rising from 15 to 32, while operating company filings moved from 7 to 15. Both sides grew, which separates this industry from telecommunications, where operating company filings fell. The partial quarter to 10 August already holds 30 cases.
Recent assertions by operating companies
Competitor litigation here is mutual more often than it is one sided. Three of the four most recent filings were entered on 10 August 2026, and two of those are the same dispute running in both directions.
- Competitive
Micron Technology, Inc. v. Netlist, Inc.
3 patents · memory modules · filed the same day as the suit below
- Competitive
Netlist, Inc. v. Micron Technology, Inc.
2 patents · memory modules · the mirror of the filing above
- Competitive
Navitas Semiconductor Ireland, LLC v. Renesas Electronics Corporation
4 patents · power semiconductors · two suppliers to the same customers
- Competitive
Delta Electronics, Inc. v. Vicor Corporation
9 patents · power conversion
Netlist and Vicor each appear on both sides of this docket within the window, as asserter and as defendant. Competitive relationship labels come from model classification in the source data rather than from court findings.
Portfolio attributes across all assertions
- Acquired patents
- All industries: 49.9%
- Median grant → suit
- All industries: 6.3 yrs
- Median priority → suit
- All industries: 13.1 yrs
- Continuations
- All industries: 44.5%
- Avg simple family
- All industries 17.3 · median here 10
- Avg total claims
- 3.1 independent claims average
Semiconductor assertions arrive older than the cross industry norm on both clocks, at 8.0 years from grant against 6.3 and 16.4 years from priority against 13.1. Continuation share runs five points above average. A median family of ten members with a live continuation rate near half means new claims can still issue against a part already in production, and that risk attaches to the competitor half of the docket more than the acquired half.
Most active asserters in window
Entities that do not practice
- NetMomentum LLC
- Active Wireless Technologies LLC
- InnoMemory, LLC
- VDPP, LLC
- CommWorks Solutions, LLC
Operating companies
- Netlist, Inc.
- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Cascade LLC
- MonolithIC 3D Inc.
- Vicor Corporation
Active Wireless Technologies LLC and Netlist, Inc. each combine cases filed under two spellings of the name. The two sides are close in shape here. The largest asserter on either side brought seven cases, and both lists fall to three quickly. With 66 distinct non practicing entities filing, a watchlist built on asserter identity covers a small part of the exposure.