Sqoop, a “news discovery network,” has released a list of the “most inventive companies of 2016 based on patent activity.” Apple places 11th on the list.
This year’s list of top grant recipients is similar to last years, with some notable changes:
- Amazon, which has seen significant media activity around some of its patents, including what has been nicknamed a flying blimp fulfillment center, was perhaps the biggest mover in the top 40, ascending from 26 to 14, and Intel moved up five
- Xerox, Blackberry, Broadcom, and Ericsson dropped off the list from 2015 to 2016.
- New to the list for 2016 are GlobalFoundries, Huawei, Hyundai, Texas Instruments, and Boe Technology Group.
- Roughly half of the patents are granted to companies headquartered outside the United States.
Sqoop reports that Apple was granted 2,115 patents in 2016. The top 10 (and their number of granted patents) is: Samsung (8,551), IBM (8,062), LG (4,102), Canon (3,673), Google (3,210), Intel (3,068), Qualcomm (3,018), Sony (2,653), Toshiba (2,536), and Microsoft (2,389).
“Sqoop’s methodology remains different from the popular lists published by IFI Claims, a patent service offered by Fairview Research; as well as the reports by the United States Patent and Trademark Office itself.”
