IFI 250: Largest Global Patent Holders

This analysis calculates the world's largest active patent holders, including subsidiaries, as a snapshot in time as of January 2, 2020.

The IFI CLAIMS Ultimate Owner ranking is a completely different view of patent holdings. Rather than looking at the grants received in a given year, as the Top 50 ranking does, the Ultimate Owner ranking looks at the current cumulative patent holdings.

The Ultimate Owner report ranks parent companies by the active patent families they own. The holdings of subsidiary companies are included in the parent company's holdings.

Learn more about how this list is calculated

The ranking is based on the current holdings of parent companies based on patent families.

1. The ranking tracks parent companies – not subsidiaries. The traditional Top 50 ranking is based on the legal entities that are assigned the patent rights. These may be subsidiaries – for example “Samsung Display” is a subsidiary of “Samsung Electronics”. In the Top 50 ranking, these entities are tracked separately, but in the Ultimate Owner report, they are combined under the corporate parent. This allows IFI to track Ultimate Owners with stock ticker symbols.
2. Patents are grouped by Family. There can be several patents (US and Foreign) associated with a single invention. In the global patent system, these patents are grouped into families. One family may contain multiple patent applications and grants. The Ultimate Owner ranking is a count of patent families owned by each company. It is not a simple count of granted patents.
3. Patent families can change hands. The Ultimate Owner family count is based on the current ownership of the patent families. For example, Global Foundries is ranked #41 in the Ultimate Owner rankings. Many of their patents were acquired from IBM. IBM is committed to innovation and patenting, but often sells their patented innovations rather than developing products around them.
4. Patent families can expire or lapse. Patents are only in effect for a limited period of time – typically 20 years from the initial filing date. Patent owners may also allow a patent to lapse before the 20 year anniversary by not paying required maintenance fees. The patent family ranking is based on active patent families only. IFI counts a family as active if at least one grant is active in a jurisdiction somewhere – not necessarily the US.

From that perspective, the Ultimate Ranking looks quite different from the annual Top 50 ranking. Samsung (including its subsidiaries) has the most active patent families by a wide margin.