NPE
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Non-practicing entity |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Law & Legal, Technology & Computing |
NPE has two meanings. It stands for Non-practicing entity (intellectual property) or NullPointerException (programming).
Meanings of NPE at a glance
| # | NPE stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Non-practicing entity | Law & Legal › Intellectual Property |
| 2 | NullPointerException | Technology & Computing › Programming |
1. Non-practicing entity
Law & Legal · Intellectual Property Abbreviations
Patent owner that does not make products or provide services using its patents but earns revenue by licensing and enforcing them, often through litigation. The term covers universities and research labs as well as companies formed to buy and assert patents.
Example: The NPE has sued 40 retailers over the same online shopping-cart patent.
Critics call aggressive assertion entities "patent trolls", and a 2016 Federal Trade Commission study used the term patent assertion entity (PAE) for firms whose main business is acquiring and asserting patents. eBay v. MercExchange (2006) made injunctions harder to obtain for patentees that do not compete in the market.
2. NullPointerException
Technology & Computing · Programming Abbreviations
The Java error thrown when code tries to use a reference that points to nothing, such as calling a method on a null variable. It is one of the most common runtime errors in Java programs.
Example: The checkout crashed with an NPE because the customer had no saved address.
Tony Hoare, who introduced null references in ALGOL W in 1965, later called them his "billion-dollar mistake". Java 8 added Optional, and Java 14 added helpful exception messages that name the null variable. Kotlin, Swift and TypeScript's strict mode track nullability in the type system to prevent such errors.
Related abbreviations
More intellectual property abbreviations
- IP – Intellectual property
- IPR – Intellectual property rights
- ITU – Intent-to-use application
- MPEP – Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
- OA – Office action
- ODP – Obviousness-type double patenting
- PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty
- PGR – Post-grant review
See all 50 intellectual property abbreviations →
More programming abbreviations
- MVVM – Model-view-viewmodel
- NaN – Not a number
- NIH – Not invented here
- NoSQL – Not only SQL
- npm – npm (often expanded as Node Package Manager)
- OOM – Out of memory
- OOP – Object-oriented programming
- ORM – Object-relational mapping
See all 154 programming abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not legal advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.