IoT Patent Rankings

Ahn Seung-kwon, chief technology officer for LG Electronics, speaks about LG's Internet of Things initiatives at CES 2015.
Ahn Seung-kwon, chief technology officer for LG Electronics, speaks about LG's Internet of Things initiatives at CES 2015.

 

LG Electronics has filed the largest number of patents for the Internet of Things (IoT) among local companies. 

LG filed 139 patents for IoT technology last year, according to a report on the trend of IoT patent applications released by the Korea Electronics Technology Institute on Feb. 15. 

The Korean tech giant was the company holding the fourth-largest number of patents, following Ericsson with 206 patents, Intel (198), and Qualcomm (143). 

The number of IoT patents filed by LG is on the rise, as seen by 48 cases in 2011, 68 in 2012, 129 in 2013, and 139 in 2014. 

KT and Samsung Electronics ranked sixth and seventh in the global IoT patent rankings in 2014, with 75 patents and 72 patents respectively. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute based in Korea was in 10th place with 52 patents. 

By country, the U.S. had the most companies in the top 20, eight in total, including Microsoft, IBM, and Xerox, aside from Intel and Qualcomm. Korea was in the runner-up position with four companies.

Among the U.S. firms, two Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) were included, and therefore patent violation lawsuits are expected in the IoT sector. 

Three Chinese companies (ZTE, Huawei, and China Academy of Telecom Tech), two Japanese firms (Sony and NEC), a Swedish company, a French firm (Alcatel-Lucent), and a Finnish company (Nokia) were also in the rankings. 

Among the top 20, U.S. companies accounted 35.8 percent of the total, which placed the U.S. in the top position. Korea was in the runner-up spot with 24.9 percent, and China (16.7 percent), Sweden (14.3 percent), and Japan (4.5 percent) followed.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution