IBM received more U.S. patents than any other company in 2015 — a total of 7,355 granted utility patents — marking its 23rd straight year at the top of a widely followed ranking, based on U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.
Samsung came in second, with 5,072 patents, according to the ranking by IFI Claims Patent Services. Other tech giants on the new list include Canon, Qualcomm, Google, Toshiba, Sony, LG Electronics, Intel and Microsoft.
However, an earlier ranking by Seattle-based news alerting startup Sqoop showed Samsung with more than 7,600 patents through the first eleven months of the year, outpacing IBM, when taking into account additional patents received by Samsung affiliates and subsidiary companies.
Addressing the difference in the two rankings, IBM said in a statement, “The official list of 2015 U.S. Patent leaders was verified and announced by IFI Claims Patent Services, based on a reliable methodology used for decades to analyze and report annual U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.”
Here’s the top 10 from IFI’s ranking.
| 1 | IBM | 7,355 |
| 2 | Samsung | 5,072 |
| 3 | Canon | 4,134 |
| 4 | Qualcomm | 2,900 |
| 5 | 2,835 | |
| 6 | Toshiba | 2,627 |
| 7 | Sony | 2,455 |
| 8 | LG Electronics | 2,242 |
| 9 | Intel | 2,048 |
| 10 | Microsoft | 1,956 |
