The Creditflux awards are the only credit fund and CLO industry awards solely determined by data and metrics, showcasing the market’s best performers. 
LONDON, May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Creditflux, a Debtwire service and part of ION Analytics, held its 16th annual CLO Manager Awards in London on 15 May 2024. The global collateralized loan obligation (CLO) community gathered at London’s Landmark Hotel to recognize the best-performing CLOs, CLO managers, and CLO funds in the USD 1.32tn* global CLO market.

This year, a record 80 CLO managers and 32 CLO fund managers submitted performance data for the awards. The list of finalists was announced in April and the category winners were announced live during the Creditflux Manager Awards Dinner, attended by 320 guests.
The awards ceremony followed a full-day Creditflux-hosted CLO Symposium that connected CLO investors with the most important arrangers, managers, and advisors in global structured finance, helping the former to deploy capital and achieve investment goals. The CLO Symposium also provided an outlook on the major trends in the US and European CLO markets, covering current topics in primary and secondary opportunities.
“Despite a backdrop of market volatility and macro-economic challenges, 2023 was another strong year for the CLO market,” said Tom Davidson, Managing Editor of Creditflux. “We are delighted to celebrate the best performers in the industry, presenting awards to the 16 managers who triumphed this year.” 
More details on the methodology for the awards can be found here. The winners are:
Category 
Winner 
CLO/Fund 
Managers 
Creditflux global manager of the year 
GoldenTree Asset Management
Best US CLO manager 
Generate Advisors 
Best European CLO manager 
Voya Alternative Asset Management 
Best US boutique CLO manager 
Sycamore Tree 
Best European boutique CLO manager 
Acer Tree Investment Management 
Best MM CLO manager 
Antares Capital 
Funds 
Best private closed-end CLO fund 
Napier Park Global Capital 
Napier Park ELM I 
Best public closed-end CLO fund 
Eagle Point Income Management 
Eagle Point Income Company (EIC) 
Best CLO fund ($150m) 
Crystal Fund 
BK Opportunities Fund V 
CLOs 
Best US CLO 
Elmwood Asset Management 
Elmwood CLO V 
Best European CLO 
Invesco 
Invesco Euro CLO IV 
Best redeemed US CLO 
CSAM 
Madison Park Funding XLI 
Best new middle market CLO 
Cerberus Business Finance 
Cerberus Loan Funding XL 
Best middle market CLO 
Golub Capital 
Golub Capital Partners CLO 47 (M) 
Best new US CLO 
MJX Asset Management 
Venture 47 CLO 
Best new European CLO 
Blackstone Credit 
Glenbrook Park CLO 
*
Global CLO principal liabilities (debt + equity) as of 31 March 2024 according to Creditflux data
About Creditflux
Creditflux, by Debtwire is the leading source for CLO and credit trading news, data, and analysis globally. Established in 2001, its team of journalists and analysts in New York and London produces daily content online and a monthly print magazine that is the publication of choice for many market professionals, including investors, dealers, brokers, analysts, and service providers. Creditflux is an ION Analytics service.
About ION Analytics
ION Analytics delivers personalized, targeted data, market intelligence, and software to banks, investors, and corporates, helping clients find opportunities and drive better decisions in markets ranging from equities and fixed income to infrastructure and private equity. For more information, visit https://ionanalytics.com   
About ION
ION provides mission-critical trading and workflow automation software, high-value analytics and insights, and strategic consulting to financial institutions, central banks, governments, and corporate organizations. Our solutions and services simplify complex processes, boost efficiency, and enable better decision-making. We build long-term partnerships with our clients, helping transform their businesses for sustained success through continuous innovation. For more information, visit https://iongroup.com/
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/creditflux-announces-2024-clo-manager-awards-winners-302146755.html

Infringement declined globally from 2012 to 2019
LONDON, May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today released the 2024 Non-Practicing Entity Global Litigation (NPE) Report to analyze NPE enforcement activities and their patent validity challenges across the globe. The report revealed that the United States, Germany and Mainland China are the three countries and regions with the most infringement cases filed by NPEs.

For this report, NPE is defined as an independent legal organization which owns or benefits from patent rights but does not sell or manufacture goods or provide goods-related services. Using the Clarivate Darts-ipTM database of patent case law, this report showed that among the countries and regions where most of infringement cases are filed by NPEs between 2018-2023, the U.S. accounts for 97.2% of the total, while Germany and Mainland China count for 1.8% and 0.4% respectively. However, the growth momentum differs in the top three countries when comparing 2012-2017 to 2018-2023. There was a 43% decrease in the number of U.S. NPE infringement cases, while the number in Mainland China increased 600% and Germany saw a strong decline starting in 2018.
This report showed that during 2012-2017, there was an undeniable trend of increasing patent validity challenges overall and of patent validity challenges filed against NPEs worldwide. While overall patent validity challenges slightly increased during 2018-2023, the number of patent validity challenges filed against NPEs worldwide slightly decreased.
Francois Neuville, Senior Vice President, Brand IP, Clarivate, said, “NPEs should now be considered as part of the patent ecosystem. These entities seek out courts where they can further monetize the value of their IP assets, using litigation as both leverage and means. As NPE litigation continues to evolve worldwide, analyzing trends using enriched data and insights can help support informed decisions for the future.”
Other key findings in the report include:
Overall, infringement action filed by NPEs declined globally from 2012 to 2019. Starting in 2020, NPE infringement cases began to stabilize at around 2,000 per year.NPEs are well known for being active in Information and Communication Technologies (i.e. digital communication, telecommunications, computer technology and audio-visual technology). These technologies account for 64% of the patents asserted by NPEs in the U.S. and for 74% of the patents asserted by NPEs in EU.Patents belonging to NPEs are being invalidated at greater frequency than non-NPEs. This may indicate that the NPEs are facing patent quality challenges.Learn more about NPE litigation worldwide trends here.
MethodologyFor this report, we consider NPEs to be independent organizations (legal entities) which own or benefit from patent rights but do not sell or manufacture goods or services associated with them (i.e., non-operating companies) and which have an active (offensive) assertion or litigation role as plaintiffs towards the enforcement of their patent rights. Read our full methodology here.
About ClarivateClarivate™ is a leading global provider of transformative intelligence. We offer enriched data, insights & analytics, workflow solutions and expert services in the areas of Academia & Government, Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com
Media contactJack WanExternal Communications [email protected]
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1159266/Clarivate_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/new-clarivate-report-reveals-that-the-us-germany-and-mainland-china-have-the-most-non-practicing-entity-litigation-302146460.html

HANGZHOU, China, May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — On May 13, Unitree Robotics introduced its latest masterpiece — Unitree G1 Humanoid agent, AI avatar! It immediately caused a sensation in the global AI and robotics fields.

The robot is about 127 centimeters tall and weighs about 35 kilograms. It has flexibility beyond ordinary people and unlocks unlimited movement potential. The walking speed of G1 is about 2m/s. It has a large joint movement space, with 23-43 joints, and the maximum joint torque can reach 120N.m. It can perform high-load dynamic movements, such as dynamic stand-up, seat folding, dance stick, etc. At the same time, G1 is based on deep reinforcement learning and simulation training, and uses the accelerated development of AI to continuously upgrade and evolve.
G1 can be equipped with the optional Dex3-1 force-controlled dexterous hand. Through force-position hybrid control, G1 can simulate the precise operation ability of the human hand and accurately control various objects. Whether it is smashing walnuts, carrying heavy objects, or picking up fragile objects such as eggs, the G1 can demonstrate extremely high accuracy and stability. What’s more worth mentioning is that the G1 robot can also easily handle delicate operations such as opening soda bottles and welding. These tasks that were considered difficult for machines in the past have now become a piece of cake under the dexterous control of the G1.
The G1 is equipped with Intel RealSense D435 and LIVOX-MID360 3D lidar, which can achieve 360° detection and perception. These sensors provide a powerful perception hardware foundation, allowing G1 to better understand the surrounding environment. In addition, the G1 power supply module supports two hours of battery life and quick disassembly.
There are two versions of the G1 humanoid robot released this time, namely G1 and G1 EDU. The price of G1 is $16k. As an advanced version, G1 EDU provides a combination of different module solutions, and the price is customized according to different customer needs. Compared with G1, G1 EDU supports Dex3-1 force-controlled dexterous hand installation, optional tactile sensor arrays, greater knee joint torque and arm load, and optional NVIDIA Jetson Orin high computing power module to support secondary development.
Unitree also released the robot world model, providing a co-creation platform: UnifoLM (Unitree Robot Unified Large Model), allowing everyone to jointly create a new era of intelligent agents and explore unlimited innovation possibilities.
Introduction: https://www.unitree.com/g1 
Website: www.unitree.com 
Contact: [email protected] 
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2413301/Unitree_G1.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/unitree-robotics-issues-g1-humanoid-agent-ai-avatar-302146425.html