Beating #1 IBM in Patent
It has been found that Samsung Electronics surpassed IBM in the United States to become the company with the largest number of patents registered in the US.
According to the "IAM/ktMINE 100 US Patent Companies," which was selected and released by the global patent journal IAM and intellectual property data analysis firm ktMINE, Samsung Electronics had 75,596 valid US patents, the highest, as of January 1.
Samsung Electronics' patents were 1.6 times second-ranked IBM's 46,443. It is unusual for Samsung Electronics overtook IBM, the company which had had the largest number of US patents for 25 consecutive years until last year. It was analyzed that this was because IBM had a very high patent abandonment rate and failed to hold a significant number of approved patents for a long time. On the other hand, Samsung was more inclined to retain patent rights and more active in more technical areas, IAM said.
Japanese Canon came in third with 38,996 patents and Microsoft and Intel made the top five with 33,327 and 30,985 patents, respectively.
LG Electronics ranked seventh with 28,235 after Panasonic (28,225). The SK Group took 56th place with 9158 patents, LG Display and ETRI had 7297 and 5153 patents, placing 65th and 82nd, respectively.
There were 45 American companies including Alphabet (11th) and Apple (21st) which accounted nearly half of the total and 14 European companies including Nokia (18th).
Only two Chinese companies were among the top 100 -- Huawei (61st) and Lenovo (93rd). Analysis says that most Chinese companies concentrated on the Chinese market and had a low market share in the US market, which made them passive about applying for patents in the US.
On the other hand, companies classified into innovative companies as they recorded high ratios of disclosed patents last year were Japan Brother Industries (59.8%) of Japan, TSMC (52.2%) of Taiwan, LG Display (51.7%), Renesas Electronics (51.3%) of Japan, Honda (51.3%) of Japan and Hyundai Motor (49.5 percent).