The Most Potent Patents

If your company sends shipping status notifications or posts digital maps online, beware: More lawsuits were filed using patents on those two features than any other patents during the past decade—and with decent success.

That’s some of the information that can be gleaned from a database of U.S. patent-litigation records run by Lex Machina, a subscription service used by lawyers and companies seeking to defend themselves.

Also among the findings: In terms of patent cases, Apple was the most-sued major U.S. technology company since 2000. The electronics giant was sued for patent infringement 364 times during that span, though the vast majority of suits were filed in the past five years. That’s nearly double the caseload that Microsoft, Google and Hewlett-Packard each faced over the same period, and the suits extend far beyond Apple’s high-profile, ongoing legal battle with Samsung Electronics.