IBM Leads Record Year for Patents
January 23, 2007
According to IFI Patent Intelligence, 2006 saw 173,772 corporate patents issued — an all-time U.S. Patent and Trademark Office record and a 20.8 percent increase compared to 2005.
IBM Corp. held the top slot this year, as it has for the past 14 years, with a record 3,651 patents. Samsung entered the top three for the first time at the No. 2 position followed by Canon, Matsushita and Hewlett-Packard, all of which exceeded the 2,000 mark and had their biggest issue years ever. In the past five years, no organization other than IBM has ever broken the 2,000-patent barrier.
Rank/Company Name/(No. Patents)
- INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP (3,651)
- SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR (2,453)
- CANON K K JP (2,378)
- MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP (2,273)
- HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO LP (2,113)
- INTEL CORP (1,962)
- SONY CORP JP (1,810)
- HITACHI LTD JP (1,749)
- TOSHIBA CORP JP (1,717)
- MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC (1,612)
- FUJITSU LTD JP ( 1,513)
- MICROSOFT CORP (1,463)
- SEIKO EPSON CORP JP (1,205)
- GENERAL ELECTRIC CO (1,051)
- FUJI PHOTO FILM CO LTD JP (918)
- INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE (904)
- KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV NL (901)
- TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC (884)
- SIEMENS AG DE (857)
- HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP (836)
- SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC (776)
- DENSO CORP JP (770)
- NEC CORP JP (744)
- LG ELECTRONICS INC KR (695)
- RICOH CO LTD JP (695)
- SHARP K K JP (692)
- EASTMAN KODAK CO (688)
- BROADCOM CORP (660)
- CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC (649)
- BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE (648)
- MITSUBISHI DENKI K K JP (623)
- NOKIA AB OY FI (597)
- RENESAS TECHNOLOGY CORP JP (593)
- MOTOROLA INC (578)
- HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC (559)
Source: IFI Patent Intelligence
