As patent reforms continue to move slowly through the legislative system, the number of patents being awarded has declined for the first time in seven years.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office issued 298,407 utility patents in 2014, according to a new report from IFI Claims. As a point of comparison, last year the research group tracked 300,678 utility patent grants. IBM remains the leader with the most patents filed, although its numbers are also down: 7,355 patents in the 2015 table versus 7,534 a year ago.
Despite the declines, the numbers are down by only less than one percent versus a year ago. In other words, if we are seeing a less heated view of patents and their effect on business (or alternately, how they may negatively impact innovation), it’s still a minor one.
“After seven straight years of prolific patent growth, 2015 saw the first sign of de- acceleration,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, in a statement. “I wouldn’t suggest though that the patent train is losing momentum as many companies continue to crank out more patents than the previous year. That historic seven-year run was remarkable especially when you consider that IBM, Samsung and Canon each generate more than twice as many patents now as they did a decade ago.”
Indeed, when it comes to potential patents, the numbers are actually up. Applications for the 2015 tables are now at 381,424. The 2014 tables noted 379,453 patent applications.
As you would expect, the top rankings in the list are dominated by tech companies. The top 10, in fact, are all tech companies:
|
RANK |
Assignee |
CC |
Count |
|
1 |
International Business Machines Corp |
US |
7355 |
|
2 |
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd |
KR |
5072 |
|
3 |
Canon KK |
JP |
4134 |
|
4 |
Qualcomm Inc |
US |
2900 |
|
5 |
Google Inc |
US |
2835 |
|
6 |
Toshiba Corp |
JP |
2627 |
|
7 |
Sony Corp |
JP |
2455 |
|
8 |
LG Electronics Inc |
KR |
2242 |
|
9 |
Intel Corp |
US |
2048 |
|
10 |
Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC |
US |
1956 |
Apple continued to hold on to number 11 with 1,938 patents filed (although down 3% on a year ago). Others advancing up the table included Qualcomm and Google both going up three places and Intel back into the top 10 after a year away, a jump of seven places.
What IFI’s larger top-50 table, embedded below, doesn’t really draw out are whether there are any trends around what kind of patents are being granted — whether, for example, we are seeing a rise in autonomous vehicle-related patents or declines in patents that are related to mobile phones. In a way, this could be a more accurate marker of where innovation is focused at the moment.
What the IFI does point out are the top 10 classifications for patents (which the USPTO is standardizing on the international cooperative patent classification system):
| CPC | 2015 Utility Grants | CPC Definition |
|---|---|---|
| G06F | 43,652 | Computers – Electrical Digital Data Processing |
| H04L | 28,117 | Telecommunications – Transmission of Digital Information |
| H01L | 25,409 | Semiconductors |
| Y10T | 25,108 | Metal Working and Hardware – fasteners and connectors |
| H04N | 16,602 | Television and Video – Pictorial Communication |
| H04W | 16,529 | Wireless Communication Networks |
| A61K | 12,197 | Pharmaceuticals |
| A61B | 11,921 | Medical Diagnostics |
| G06Q | 8,828 | Business Methods Data Processing |
| G01N | 8,501 | Testing Instruments – Investigating or analyzing materials by determining their chemical of physical properties. |
It notes that grants in the business methods patent class declined to 8,828 from 11,690 in 2014. IFI cites the 2014 Supreme Court decision in the Alice Corp. vs. CLS Bank International, which tightened the rules on which business methods are patentable. “The impact of the decision can be seen in the drop in G06Q patents,” it writes. This is a good sign for those who are hoping for more legal precedent and how it impacts patent reform in other areas.
IBM in a separate release about its patent leadership points out that its patents covered various areas like AI, machine learning and natural language processing and cloud platform technology — all areas of the market where it’s looking to do more in general.
Some other notable details: Amazon made one of the more impressive jumps, from number 50 to number 26 (with 1,136 patents) — another sign of how the company has tried to shift away from its e-commerce roots into a whole different range of businesses from cloud computing to mobile services and new hardware.
Another trend IFI has drawn out involves how some larger companies are spreading their patents across multiple entities. In fact, the “Microsoft Technology Licensing” that appears as number-10 in the list below was ranked 979th a year ago. “Microsoft Corp.” meanwhile, which was ranked fifth last year, this year took only 458 patents.
Similarly, “Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd” at number 18 was 971st a year ago. The vast majority of Google’s patents are going to “Google Inc.” but there is another entity called “Google Technology Holdings LLC”. It’s not clear exactly why these are now getting split, whether for litigation or other purposes. (We’re going to try to find out and update this with an explanation.)
Top 50 list below.
| RANK | Grants | Assignee Name | Country |
| 1 | 7355 | International Business Machines Corp | United States |
| 2 | 5072 | Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | Korea |
| 3 | 4134 | Canon KK | Japan |
| 4 | 2900 | Qualcomm Inc | United States |
| 5 | 2835 | Google Inc | United States |
| 6 | 2627 | Toshiba Corp | Japan |
| 7 | 2455 | Sony Corp | Japan |
| 8 | 2242 | LG Electronics Inc | Korea |
| 9 | 2048 | Intel Corp | United States |
| 10 | 1956 | Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC | United States |
| 11 | 1938 | Apple Inc | United States |
| 12 | 1838 | Samsung Display Co Ltd | Korea |
| 13 | 1774 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co | Taiwan |
| 14 | 1757 | General Electric Co | United States |
| 15 | 1627 | Ricoh Co Ltd | Japan |
| 16 | 1620 | Seiko Epson Corp | Japan |
| 17 | 1581 | Toyota Motor Corp | Japan |
| 18 | 1474 | Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd | Japan |
| 19 | 1467 | Fujitsu Ltd | Japan |
| 20 | 1407 | Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson | Sweden |
| 21 | 1315 | GM Global Technology Operations LLC | United States |
| 22 | 1304 | Hewlett Packard Development Co LP | United States |
| 23 | 1187 | Brother Kogyo KK | Japan |
| 24 | 1185 | Ford Global Technologies LLC | United States |
| 25 | 1142 | Robert Bosch GmbH | Germany |
| 26 | 1136 | Amazon Technologies Inc | United States |
| 27 | 1129 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co Ltd | Japan |
| 28 | 1085 | Broadcom Corp | United States |
| 29 | 1083 | Hon Hai Precision IndUnited Statestry Co Ltd | Taiwan |
| 30 | 1071 | BlackBerry Ltd | Canada |
| 31 | 1031 | Honda Motor Co Ltd | Japan |
| 32 | 1011 | Siemens AG | Germany |
| 33 | 997 | Sharp KK | Japan |
| 34 | 976 | Boeing Co | United States |
| 35 | 961 | Micron Technology Inc | United States |
| 36 | 960 | Cisco Technology Inc | United States |
| 37 | 923 | Koninklijke Philips NV | Netherlands |
| 38 | 896 | Mitsubishi Electric Corp | Japan |
| 39 | 891 | SK Hynix Inc | Korea |
| 40 | 885 | AT&T Intellectual Property I LP | United States |
| 41 | 809 | Xerox Corp | United States |
| 41 | 809 | Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute | Korea |
| 43 | 808 | Texas Instruments Inc | United States |
| 44 | 800 | Huawei Technologies Co Ltd | China |
| 45 | 792 | NEC Corp | Japan |
| 46 | 778 | Denso Corp | Japan |
| 47 | 747 | FUJIFILM Corp | Japan |
| 48 | 746 | Honeywell International Inc | United States |
| 49 | 745 | Covidien LP | United States |
| 50 | 744 | Hyundai Motor Co | Korea |
Comment