Here are two charts to show the proportion of software patent grants of all patent grants issued by year since 2008, and software patent grants share of all litigation since 2008. Both are increasing at a steady rate. These facts correspond with the importance of software in corporate strategy in the past decade. Software has also dominated M&A deals in terms of value and volume.
Figure 1: Patent Grants from software-related UPC subclasses as a share of all patent grants issued (2008-2012)
Figure 2: Patent Grants from software-related UPC subclasses as a share of all patent litigation (2008-2012)
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