Top 40 Most Inventive Companies Based on Patent Activity this Year

Bill Hankes June 11, 2015

We see the same companies apply for and receive dozens of patents each week in some cases, so we decided to publish a list of those companies who are most inventive. Following are lists of companies that have received grants and applied for utility patents, i.e., patents for invention, from the United States Patent Office, through the end of May.

Sqoop indexes new patent applications and grants as soon as they are published by the USPTO each week, as well as data from the SEC and the federal court system, so that journalists can easily search them and create alerts based on companies, technologies and other factors they are interested in tracking. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of utility patent activity comes from technology and consumer electronics businesses. Surprisingly, however, they are companies in many cases that don’t dominate headlines, like Apple Inc., and Google, though they are certainly on the list, prominently in the case of Google.

Here are the top 40 most inventive companies so far in 2015.

Patents Granted Jan.-May 2015

     
1 International Business Machines Corporation 3,059
2 Samsung1 3,052
3 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha 1,782
4 LG2 1,484
5 Google Inc. 1,083
6 Sony Corporation 1,074
7 Microsoft3 1,037
8 Qualcomm Incorporated 1,034
9 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 1,022
10 Panasonic4 896
11 Apple Inc. 780
12 General Electric Company 730
13 Intel Corporation 711
14 Ricoh Company, Ltd. 695
15 Seiko Epson Corporation 625
16 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 620
17 Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha 613
18 Fujitsu Limited 570
19 GM Global Technology Operations LLC 542
20 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. 531
21 Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson (publ) 509
22 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha 486
23 BlackBerry Limited 461
24 Broadcom Corporation 454
25 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 451
26 Robert Bosch GmbH 436
27 Honda Motor Co., Ltd. 417
28 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha 410
29 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. 408
30 Amazon Technologies, Inc. 391
31 The Boeing Company 391
32 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft 388
33 Micron Technology, Inc. 371
34 Covidien LP 370
35 Ford Global Technologies, LLC. 359
36 Cisco Technology, Inc. 353
37 AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. 351
38 Nec Corporation 336
39 Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute 327
40 SK Hynix Inc. 323

Patent Applications Jan.-May 2015

     
1 Samsung5 2,487
2 International Business Machines Corporation 1,764
3 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 989
4 LG6 856
5 General Electric Company 664
6 Qualcomm Incorporated 617
7 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 561
8 Sony Corporation 528
9 Hyundai Motor Company 514
10 Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha 462
11 Google Inc. 439
12 Ford Global Technologies,LLC 437
13 Mitsubishi Electric Corporation 436
14 Microsoft Corporation 383
15 Fujitsu Limited 373
16 SK Hynix Inc. 333
17 Ricoh Company, Ltd. 330
18 Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson(publ) 330
19 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. 323
20 GM Global Technology Operations LLC 296
21 Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute 293
22 FUJIFILM Corporation 282
23 Apple Inc. 279
24 Broadcom Corporation 255
25 Cisco Technology, Inc. 254
26 Xerox Corporation 254
27 The Boeing Company 253
28 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft 243
29 AT&T Intellectual Property I.L.P. 242
30 Robert Bosch GmbH 236
31 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha 234
32 Honda Motor Co., Ltd. 214
33 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. 213
34 NEC Corporation 195
35 Oracle International Corporation 194
36 Wistron Corporation 193
37 Baker Hughes Incorporated 193
38 Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. 161
39 Nvidia Corporation 161
40 Bank Of America Corporation 160

  1. Includes Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.; Samsung-Display Co., Ltd.. ↩

  2. Includes LG Chem, Ltd.; LG Display Co., Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.; LG Innotek Co., Ltd.. ↩

  3. Includes Microsoft Corporation; Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.. ↩

  4. Includes Panasonic Corporation; Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation Of America; Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co.,Ltd.. ↩

  5. Includes Samsung Display Co.,Ltd.; Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.. ↩

  6. Includes LG Chem, Ltd.; LG Display Co., Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.. ↩