Reference: IFI CLAIMS Announces Top 50 U.S. Patent Assignees of 2012; Google at 21, Apple at 22
From IFI:
Top-Line Trends
- The USPTO issued 253,155 utility patents in 2012, the highest annual number on record and an increase of approximately 13 percent over 2011.
- All but nine companies in the Top 50 saw an increase in patent production over last year. In fact, 32 of the gainers saw double-digit or better growth.
- A total of 17 U.S. based firms made the Top-50 list in 2012, the same number as in 2011 — the number of Asian firms also held steady at 26.
- This year marks IBM’s twentieth consecutive appearance as the list leader — receiving a record of 6,478 utility patents in 2012, up nearly 5 percent from 2011.
- GE and LG are both back in the Top 10. General Electric, #9, makes its first appearance since 2002; LG, #10, makes its first since 2010.
More Trends, Biggest Movers, Drops, etc. in this document.
Top 6
1. IBM (6478 patent grants)
2. Samsung (5081)
3. Canon (3174)
4. Sony (3031)
5. Panasonic (2769)
6. Microsoft (2613)
Others
21. Google (1151)
Biggest Gainer, Up 170%; Was 65 on 2011 list.
22. Apple (1136)
Direct to Complete 2012 Top 50 List
See Also: Complete 2011 Top 50 List
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
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