Samsung and IBM were each granted more than 3,000 U.S. patents between January and May, putting the companies at the top of a new list of the “most inventive” companies so far this year — ranking well ahead of tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Sony and Apple.
Samsung also applied for the most U.S. patents so far this year, with 2,487 applications. The stats were released this morning by Sqoop, a Seattle-area startup whose service is used by journalists to search for and receive alerts on a variety of public filings.
“Not surprisingly, the vast majority of utility patent activity comes from technology and consumer electronics businesses,” writes Sqoop co-founder Bill Hankes, a former Microsoft and RealNetworks communications executive, in a post about the rankings. However, he notes, those at the top of the list don’t dominate the tech headlines like Apple and Google do.
Sqoop indexes issued patents and patent applications as they’re published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office each week. The rankings focus on utility patents, also known as patents of invention, as opposed to design or other forms of patents.
IBM was an early leader in building and licensing a large portfolio of patents, and the company has long been one of the most prolific pursuers of patents.
Samsung has battled the likes of Apple and Microsoft over patents in court, using its IP portfolio to bolster its legal position. The company, the largest smartphone maker in the world, is also a major player in tablets and television, in addition to making components like batteries, flash memory and chips used by a wide variety of companies in their own products.
Here are Sqoop’s rankings of the top 10 companies receiving and applying for utility patents so far this year. See the company’s post for the full lists of top 40 companies in each category, with footnotes on the related licensing entities.
Patents Granted Jan.-May 2015
| 1 | International Business Machines Corporation | 3,059 |
| 2 | Samsung | 3,052 |
| 3 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | 1,782 |
| 4 | LG | 1,484 |
| 5 | Google Inc. | 1,083 |
| 6 | Sony Corporation | 1,074 |
| 7 | Microsoft | 1,037 |
| 8 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 1,034 |
| 9 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | 1,022 |
| 10 | Panasonic | 896 |
Patent Applications Jan.-May 2015
| 1 | Samsung | 2,487 |
| 2 | International Business Machines Corporation | 1,764 |
| 3 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | 989 |
| 4 | LG | 856 |
| 5 | General Electric Company | 664 |
| 6 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 617 |
| 7 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. | 561 |
| 8 | Sony Corporation | 528 |
| 9 | Hyundai Motor Company | 514 |
| 10 | Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha | 462 |
