Communications of the ACM
U.s. Patent Awards Up 31 Percent in 2010
Credit: BRDAL
The number of U.S. patent awards rose 31 percent in 2010, with the U.S. Patent Office issuing a record 219,614 patents. IBM owned 5,896 patents, while Apple, Qualcomm, NEC, and General Motors exhibited the greatest general growth. Samsung came in second place with 4,551 patents, while Microsoft earned third place with 3,094. "There is still a backlog of patents pending, but the number of grants continues to grow even after a period of economic downturn," says IFI Claims Patent Services' Darlene Slaughter.
The biggest recorded gain was the 31 percent yearly increase in utility patent awards, while IBM has topped the list for 18 years in a row, according to IFI. All companies in the top 50 except one experienced increases, with many posting double-digit percentage boosts. Apple had the most growth with a 94 percent spike to 563 granted patents, making it number 46 on the Top 50 list. Qualcomm had 84 percent growth with 657 patents, NEC had 74 percent growth with 680 patents, and GM grew 68 percent with 942 patents.
U.S. firms held 50.3 percent of all patents in 2010, compared to 49 percent in 2009. Coming in second, third, fourth, and fifth in terms of global patent ownership were Japan with 21.3 percent, South Korea with 5.4 percent, Germany with 5.2 percent, and Taiwan with 3.8 percent.
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