IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, a producer of global patent databases and innovative web services, has announced the 2016 IFI CLAIMS U.S. Top 50, an annual ranking of top patent recipients. Apple increased the number of patents it received, but remains at #11 on the list.
The Cupertino, California-based company was granted 2,102 patents in 2016. That’s up 8.46% from the 1,938 it was granted in 2015.
Using proprietary algorithms to analyze U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data, IFI CLAIMS ranks global patent assignees by number of utility patents received each calendar year. 2016 saw 304,126 utility patent grants, the most on record in a single year. IBM again holds the #1 slot, which it has for 24 consecutive years, with 8,088 patents—up nearly 10% over 2015 and the most any company has ever acquired in a calendar year. The other Top 5 recipients remain unchanged from 2015 with Samsung at #2, Canon at #3, Qualcomm at #4, and Google again at #5.
All of the patents generated by the IFI CLAIMS Top 50 are attributable to just 11 countries. The U.S. holds 41% of those patent counts followed by Japan at 28%; South Korea at 15%; Taiwan at 4%; Germany at 2.6% and China at 2.5%. At 17 each, the U.S. and Japan are tied for the most assignees in the Top 50.
