Companies Receiving Most U.S. Patents in 1999
According to the Patent
Intelligence and Technology Report 2000, IBM Corporation leads in
number of U.S. patents.
Wilmington, DE — If patent filings are any indication,
no nation right now is at all dominant on the cutting-edge of world technology.
A major American corporation is way out in front. A Japanese company placed
and a variety of others trail behind.
IBM Corporation continues with top honors in 1999 by receiving 2,789 U.S.
patents or 37% more than the next company who is NEC Corporation of Japan
receiving 1,853 patents according to the 2000 edition of the Patent
Intelligence and Technology Report (PITR). Only
three U.S. corporations — namely IBM, Lucent Technologies and Motorola
— appeared in the top 10 companies receiving U.S. patents in 1999. Other
significant changes were granted to Samsung Electronics Company of Korea who
moved from sixth position in 1998 to fourth position in 1999 and Lucent Technologies
who moved from 13th position in 1998 to ninth position in 1999. All counts
found in the PITR 2000 are based upon multiple assignment
records of U.S. utility and statutory patents.
IBM Corporation received most of its patents in the area of "Information
Processing Systems" followed by "Data Processing and Database Management"
and is the leader in both technology fields. IBM generates more than a billion
dollars annually from their intellectual property portfolio.
However, for American companies, the good news is that trend lines may still
be pointing in their direction. During 1999, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office granted a total of 154,594 patents as compared to 151,024 patents in
1998. With the passing of Senate bill 1948 in November 1999, which states
that all patent applications filed in the USA and in another foreign country
will be published 18 months after filing, we can expect to see the number
of U.S. patent publications increase during the latter part of the year 2000.
Complete information concerning over 1,600 companies worldwide, that received
10 or more U.S. patents in 1999 will be found in the Patent Intelligence
and Technology Report 2000 from IFI CLAIMS® Patent Services, a division of Aspen Law & Business. To order, call 800-638-8437
or fax 800-901-9075. A sample review issue of the PITR 2000
is available by faxing a request to M. Young at 212-597-0339.
List
of Top 53 Companies by Rank for 1999
Ranked
by number of patents
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IFI CLAIMS® Patent Services