Click on image for full size view. (Statista)
17 Aug. 2019. One measure of a company’s culture for innovation is the number of patents granted for its inventions. Of course, other factors affect that number, such as the size of the business and number of intellectual property lawyers it can call upon. That may explain IBM’s leading all companies in the number of U.S. patents awarded in 2018, and for the 26th year in a row.
Our friends at Statista prepared a chart this week with data from an annual report by the Intellectual Property Owners Association, this weekend’s infographic on Science & Enterprise. The graphic shows IBM with more than 9,000 patents last year assigned to the company, the owners of the rights to the intellectual property. Samsung’s inventors received more than 5,800 patents in 2018, followed by Canon with some 3,200 patents. The next nine spots, with 2,100 to 2,800 patents are major technology companies, particularly semiconductor and hardware manufacturers, but also Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, and Apple.
Patents are no guarantee of developing innovative products and services, but they offer an early sign of where those innovations may happen.
More from Science & Enterprise:
- Infographic – Microsoft, IBM Lead A.I. Patent Race
- Patent Awarded for Engineered T-Cell Cancer Therapy
- UC-Berkeley to Get New Crispr Patent
Disclosure: The author owns shares in IBM.
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