Amazon named as ‘top global innovator’ for the first time

Amazon along with oil and gas companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil are among the high-profile entrants to Thomson Reuters’s “ 2015 Top Global Innovators” report.

The latest release, published on November 12, is the fifth annual report on global innovators by the research company.

The report lists the top innovating companies across the world by measuring the volume of patents, patent approval success rates, and the number of times a company’s patent is cited.

Amazon enters the list for the first time, while Chevron and Exxon return after being left out in 2014.

Other first time entries include German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, telecommunications company InterDigital, and Japanese company Mitsui Chemicals.

US and Japanese organisations made up 75% of the overall companies listed.

The report attributes the return of oil and gas companies to their excursions into hydraulic fracking and of providing alternative sources of renewable energy. No oil and gas company was named in last year’s report.

Amazon’s entrance follows it being granted US patents for inventions to detect online malicious activity and protective cases for electronic readers. The report states this is part of an emerging trend of media internet search and navigation companies.

Basil Moftah, president of Thomson Reuters IP & Science, said: “In today’s hypercompetitive global marketplace, innovation requires much more than having a great idea. True innovation occurs when organisations harness the power of intellectual property rights and commercial insight to bring an idea to life.

“The institutions on this year’s list represent the current vanguard in innovation by pioneering new breakthroughs and organising their businesses to make new discoveries a reality,” he added.