September 30, 2019
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The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) published its annual ranking of the organizations that were granted the most US utility patents in 2018, based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. With 9,088 patents, IBM tops the list for the 26th consecutive year. Approximately half of IBM’s patents in 2018 were related to AI, cloud computing, blockchain, security, and quantum computing.
Coming in at a distant second, Samsung Electronics Co. received 5,836 patents and Canon K.K. landed third on the list with 3,206 patents. Samsung Electronics Co.’s 5,836 patents do not include those owned by Samsung subsidiaries such as Samsung Display Co., Samsung SDI Co., or Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., which ranked 17th, 106th, and 108th respectively.
Other big names in the list include Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, at number 6 and Microsoft at number 9. Apple just missed the top 10 ranking, coming in at number 11.
The IPO also noted that the number of utility patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office fell from 318,259 in 2017 to 307,759 in 2018.
Authors: Amanda Bertucci and Meg King
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