IBM obtains more than 100,000 US patents in 25 years
Cloud computing company IBM has once again been assigned the most patents in the US, according to the rankings by IFI Claims.
Last year was the 25th year in a row that the company has topped the list of recipients of US patents, gaining a 12% increase from its 2016 number.
IBM’s total of 9,043 patents in 2017 is triple the number of patents it received a decade ago, and it means that IBM has acquired over 100,000 patents in the last 25 years. IBM received more than 1,900 cloud patents, 1,400 AI patents and 1,200 cybersecurity patents, alongside its blockchain and quantum computing inventions.
Samsung and Canon retained 2nd and 3rd places in the rankings, respectively. While Canon’s assignment of 3,285 patents was down 10% from 2016, Samsung received 5,837 patents in 2017, which was an increase of 6%.
A record number of 320,003 patents were granted overall in 2017 by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), equating to a 5.2% increase from 2016. Nearly half (46%) of these patents were granted to US companies, with Asian businesses receiving 31% and European companies 15%.
For the first time, Facebook made it into IFI’s Top 50 list, at number 50, having been granted 660 patents by the USPTO in 2017, a large increase from its ranking of 86th in 2016. BOE Technology Group, based in Beijing, also made a large jump from ranking 40th in 2016 to 21st in 2017. Intel and LG both moved up two places, putting them in the top five.
IFI identified rapid growth in technologies such as e-cigarettes, 3D printing, and autonomous vehicles. In particular, patents in areas such as unmanned vehicle navigation and advanced manufacturing technology have increased in the automotive sector.
Computing, telecommunications, and medical industries such as pharmaceuticals and diagnostics/surgical continue to receive a high volume of patents. In 2017, there were large increases in grants for patents centring on specific types of data processing systems, which “had been volatile over the last few years due to recent court decisions regarding patentability”, according to IFI.
Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, said: “For the past 25 years, IBM’s patent leadership has changed the way the world works with advancements critical to the modern era of computing. Today, nearly half of our patents are pioneering advancements in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain and quantum computing—and all are aimed at helping our clients create smarter businesses.”
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