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IBM Remains Top Recipient of U.S. Patents in 2020


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IBM held its long-time place as the top recipient of U.S. patents in 2020 with 9,130 inventions, followed by Samsung, Canon, and Microsoft. Others in the top 10 include Apple and LG, plus chip firms Intel, TSMC, and Qualcomm. Huawei is also in the top 10, according to research firm IFI.

IFI's list of the top 50 patent recipients for 2020, including the number of patents they received, is published online.

IFI's research also includes a section on the top 10 fastest growing new technologies that appear in patent applications. The results, which cover 2016 to 2020, show that patents related to the fields of machine learning and quantum computing account for the number four and five slots respectively.

The fast-growing category overall, which is determined by codes assigned by the U.S. Patent Office, is one titled "Computer systems based on biological models." The category, for which IBM received 2,789 patents last year, appears to span a wide variety of inventions related to so-called "neural networks" and other techniques that imitate brain functions.

From Fortune
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