Foreign firms take slight collective lead in patents; IBM tops company list

For the second straight year, foreign companies collectively captured a slight majority of new U.S. patents awarded to corporations by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). According to an annual corporate ranking released January 12 by IFI Patent Intelligence (www.ificlaims.com), part of Wolters Kluwer, U.S. corporations garnered 49 percent of all U.S. utility patents issued in 2009 with the remainder going to foreign firms. This is only the second time that foreign companies collectively received more U.S. patents than U.S.-based firms.

 

“It’s foolhardy to use this statistic to infer that American firms are losing ground to foreign competitors because with patents, it’s important to consider quality as well as quantity,” said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence. “What we’re seeing this year is that innovation in American firms is far from declining, in fact, many had impressive gains and several posted record numbers of total new patents.”

 

As a whole, U.S. companies received approximately 7 percent more utility patents in 2009 than in 2008, compared to 6.5 percent by foreign companies. The U.S. also received more than twice as many corporate patents than Japan (23 percent), the country with the second most U.S. patents issued in 2009. South Korea (5.6 percent) moved into third place displacing Germany (5.2 percent) for the first time.

 

Collectively, U.S. firms may be slightly behind foreign firms as a group, but individually, they showed significant improvement over 2008. For example, IBM achieved an all-time high for any company of 4,914, up 17 percent. Microsoft took over the #3 slot boosting its total patents by 43 percent. IFI observed several additional impressive year-over-year gains by U.S. firms in the top 50:

 

Boeing, up 26 percent

Broadcom, up 11 percent

Cisco, up 30 percent

General Electric, up 7 percent

GM Global, up 68 percent

Honeywell, up nearly 6 percent

Sun, up 10 percent

Xerox, up 18 percent

 

Although the margin of patent dominance between U.S. and non-U.S. firms is slight and has been for several years, there is no uncertainty that foreign firms are adding patents at a frenetic pace. “Interest in protecting corporate intellectual property has become intense both in the U.S. and abroad, and as a result we’re seeing an increased level of patent activity,” continued Slaughter. “The silver lining may be that the high priority foreign firms place on U.S. patents is a confirmation of the value and importance that the U.S. market represents.”

 

Employing proprietary authority lists and algorithms to enhance the speed and accuracy of the culling process, IFI analyzed 2009 calendar year USPTO data and prepared what has become the official ranking of U.S. patent assignees. The company posted the 2009 top 50 today on its website at www.ificlaims.com:

                                                                          

Rank

Company Name

2009 Patents

1

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP

4914

2

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR

3611

3

MICROSOFT CORP

2906

4

CANON K K JP

2206

5

PANASONIC CORP JP (1)

1829

6

TOSHIBA CORP JP

1696

7

SONY CORP JP

1680

8

INTEL CORP

1537

9

SEIKO EPSON CORP JP

1330

10

HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO L P (2)

1273

11

FUJITSU LTD JP

1220

12

LG ELECTRONICS INC KR

1065

13

HITACHI LTD JP

1058

14

HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO LTD TW

 995

15

RICOH CO LTD JP

 988

16

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO

 979

17

MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC

 966

18

CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC

 913

19

FUJIFILM CORP JP

 880

20

HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP

 774

21

HDENSO CORP JP

 745

22

SIEMENS AG DE

 716

23

BROADCOM CORP

 714

24

SHARP K K JP

 657

25

HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC

 655

26

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC

 652

27

NOKIA AB OY FI

 648

28

XEROX CORP

 624

29

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE

 605

30

LG DISPLAY CO LTD KR (3)

 597

31

HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR INC KR

 587

32

SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC

 561

33

SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO LTD JP

 545

34

BOEING CO THE

 534

35

BROTHER KOGYO K K JP

 532

35

MITSUBISHI DENKI K K JP

 532

35

TOYOTA JIDOSHA K K JP

 532

38

GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS INC

 531

39

NEC CORP JP

 526

40

KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N V NL

 515

41

SILVERBROOK RESEARCH PTY LTD AU

 474

42

BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE

 467

43

AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P

 444

44

SANYO ELECTRIC CO LTD JP

 443

45

FUJI XEROX CO LTD JP

 425

46

SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD KR

 423

47

ALCATEL-LUCENT USA INC

 413

48

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE TW

 397

49

NEC ELECTRONICS CORP JP

 391

50

HITACHI GLOBAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES NETHERLANDS B V

 385

 

 

              

               (1) includes 58 patents issued to former company name

                              Matsushita Electric Industrial Co JP

               (2) includes 4 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co

               (3) includes 1 patent issued to former company name

                              LG Philips LCD Co KR

 

According to IFI’s analysis, the USPTO issued a total of 167,350 utility patents in calendar year 2009, up 6.1 percent over 2008, and approaching the all-time high of 173,772 set in 2006. It would appear that the economic downturn of the past two years has yet to slow the flow of U.S. patent activity. However, the USPTO posted a 1.8 percent decrease in patent applications for its fiscal year 2009 for a total of 457,966, the first annual decrease in applications since fiscal year 1996. As a result, this decrease could translate into fewer patent issues in the coming two or three years.

 

Market sectors with the heaviest new patent activity include Multiplex Communications (U.S. class 370) and Semiconductors (U.S. classes 438 and 257), representing almost 15,000 patents total for 2009. The bio sectors of Drug Compositions (U.S. class 514) had 3,474 patents and Biotechnology (U.S. class 435) had more than 2,700 patents issued, up 17 percent and 1 percent, respectively, over the previous year.

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