Semiconductors and VR lead marginal increase in US patents in 2023
Granted US patents rose slightly following decline in 2022 | Samsung had the most patents granted in the country with over 10,000 | EV-related tech drops out of top ten.
The number of patents granted in the US grew nearly 0.5% last year with semiconductor innovation and virtual reality (VR) the top technology fields for securing IP, according to data released by IP management company Anaqua today (January 23).
Anaqua’s analysis, based on figures from the US Patent and Trademark Office, shows that there were 348,774 US patents granted between December 1, 2022, and November 30, 2023—a slight increase from 347,408 in 2022.
Following an 8% drop in patents granted in 2022—the sharpest decline for over a decade—the small gain last year would be “welcome news for the industry”, said Anaqua director of analytics solutions Shayne Phillips, who authored the report.
Dominating the tech sector
IP investment in semiconductor technology remained high in 2023, likely driven by widespread 5G innovation, with 59,662 US patents granted in the field—the most in any technology sector.
“Of note, chemicals and chemistry-related technologies cracked the top ten list for the first time, pushing electric vehicle-related technologies out of the top ten rankings,” said Phillips.
The technology field with the second-highest number of granted patents was VR (57,252), followed by 5G and AI (55,263 and 48,576 respectively).
According to Anaqua, the companies that received the most granted AI patents last year were IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet ( Google), Microsoft and Amazon.
These patents spanned multiple areas of AI, with a particular focus on machine learning models, general neural network development, neural networks combination technology and neural networks for image and video recognition.
Samsung stays on top
In terms of the geographical spread of US patent assignees, US companies accounted for just under half of the patents in 2023, with a total of 162,557 between them. Companies from Japan took 12%, followed by China (8%), South Korea (7%) and Germany (4%).
Samsung held on to its crown as the company with the most US patents granted in 2023, with 10,043—up from 9,290 the year before.
IBM took the second spot with 4,003 patents granted, followed by Qualcomm with 3,852, Taiwan Semiconductor with 3,442 and LG with 3,319.
Anaqua’s analysis also revealed the top University patentee last year to be the University of California, with 576 granted US patents.
Commenting on the findings, Phillips said: “With patent grants holding steady in 2023, our analysis shows that companies across the globe are continuing to innovate despite economic uncertainty and volatility.”
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