A new report was published today noting a drop-off in recent patent lawsuits. The data released by Unified Patents is the second recent indication that there may be a decline in suits following this summer's US Supreme Court decisions.

The Unified Patents data shows that the third quarter of 2014 saw 23 percent fewer patent cases overall. When looking only at litigation from patent trolls, which Unified calls "non-practicing entities" or NPEs, one sees a 35 percent drop.

As with the earlier Lex Machina data, it's too early to determine the decline is necessarily tied to the Alice v. CLS Bank decision from this summer. In that decision, the US Supreme Court said that "do it on a computer"-style patents should be knocked out as too "abstract" for patenting.

"This provides a much clearer picture of why things went down, since it is clear litigation in general did not change—only NPE litigation in high tech had a great tumble," wrote Unified Patents COO Shawn Ambwani. "We cannot be clear as to the causation, but can make some good guesses, which include Alice and the America Invents Act."

Both the UP and Lex Machina data sets reflect a spike in filings that took place in April 2014, when patent-holding companies apparently were fearful of a patent reform bill being passed that would have backdated some reforms.

The Unified Patents report shows that during the last quarter, 1,124 new patent lawsuits were filed, with 58 percent of them being in the high-tech area. Medical cases, including pharmaceuticals, constituted 19 percent of the total, while 23 percent were labeled "other."

Of those cases, 554 were deemed to have been filed by "non-practicing entities." That's about 50 percent of the total, which is less than studies from last year showing more than 60 percent of cases coming from patent troll cases.

Unified Patents' business involves charging companies a membership fee then seeking to reduce the threat of trolls by providing various services, including filing to invalidate troll patents with USPTO challenges.

Tech lobbyists in DC, who still want to see a patent reform bill passed, are pushing against the narrative that patent suits are down in any dramatic way.

"Of course, the patent trolls are trying to use these inaccurate reports to argue that the patent troll problem is essentially solved," wrote Matthew Levy of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. He notes that the overall trend is still up, with only about a 10 percent dip scheduled for the year. "The fact that patent trolls are pausing slightly to assess the changing landscape is hardly a reason to celebrate victory."

Listing image by Unified Patents