2020 Global 250: The World's Largest Patent Holders

The Global 250 is an Ultimate Owner ranking, providing a complete view of an entity's global patent holdings, including patented technologies held by an entity's subsidiaries or majority-owned companies. Rather than looking at the grants received in a single year, such as the Top 50 ranking, the Global 250 presents the cumulative and active technology holdings in an entity's patent portfolio for a given year.

Rank Ultimate Owner Active Families
1 Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 80,577
2 International Business Machines Corp 38,541
3 Canon Inc 36,161
4 Microsoft Corp 30,042
5 Robert Bosch GmbH 28,235
6 Panasonic Corp 26,705
7 LG Electronics Inc 24,313
8 General Electric Co 23,630
9 Intel Corp 23,523
10 Siemens AG 22,373
11 Toyota Motor Corp 22,157
12 Sony Corp 21,931
13 Alphabet Inc 21,762
14 Hitachi Ltd 21,619
15 Qualcomm Inc 21,522
16 Raytheon Technologies Corp 20,800
17 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd 20,646
18 Nokia Oyj 18,742
19 Fujifilm Holdings Corp 18,456
20 Apple Inc 18,161
21 Ford Motor Co 17,905
22 General Motors Co 17,384
23 Volkswagen AG 17,269
24 Huawei Investment and Holding Co Ltd 17,112
25 Fujitsu Ltd 16,237
26 Dell Technologies Inc 15,607
27 Honda Motor Co Ltd 15,307
28 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB 15,226
29 Seiko Epson Corp 14,475
30 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSMC Ltd 14,268
31 Broadcom Inc 14,219
32 Honeywell International Inc 14,163
33 Denso Corp 14,144
34 Mitsubishi Electric Corp 13,751
35 HP Inc 13,565
36 Texas Instruments Inc 13,282
37 Oracle Corp 13,212
38 Medtronic PLC 12,980
39 Toshiba Corp 12,940
40 Koninklijke Philips NV 12,733
41 Ricoh Co Ltd 12,521
42 Johnson and Johnson 12,442
43 Boeing Co 11,966
44 Cisco Systems Inc 11,874
45 Infineon Technologies AG 11,151
46 Amazon com Inc 11,060
47 Continental AG 10,909
48 Brother Industries Ltd 10,279
49 NEC Corp 10,175
50 BASF SE 10,095
51 Airbus SE 10,027
52 NXP Semiconductors BV 9,787
53 Hyundai Motor Co 9,773
54 Bayer AG 9,658
55 BlackBerry Ltd 9,498
56 Kyocera Corp 9,395
57 BOE Technology Group Co Ltd 9,373
58 Valeo SA 9,279
59 Safran SA 9,252
60 LG Display Co Ltd 9,112
61 Procter and Gamble Co 8,997
62 Western Digital Corp 8,824
63 STMicroelectronics NV 8,544
64 SK Hynix Inc 8,543
65 Xerox Holdings Corp 8,529
66 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co 8,421
67 AT&T Inc 8,376
68 3M Co 8,250
69 Olympus Corp 8,045
70 Micron Technology Inc 8,034
71 GlobalFoundries Inc 7,600
72 Konica Minolta Inc 7,427
73 National Research Council of Science and Technology 7,349
74 Schlumberger Ltd 7,311
75 Renesas Electronics Corp 7,146
76 Nike Inc 7,141
77 Halliburton Co 7,089
78 Baker Hughes Holdings LLC 6,853
79 Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd 6,812
80 Corteva Inc 6,767
81 Dow Inc 6,761
82 Lenovo Group Ltd 6,648
83 Boston Scientific Corp 6,468
84 Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd 6,440
85 Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives 6,431
86 Verizon Communications Inc 6,197
87 Nissan Motor Co Ltd 6,160
88 Abbott Laboratories 5,939
89 Caterpillar Inc 5,936
90 TDK Corp 5,849
91 TCL Corp 5,823
92 Kioxia Corp 5,709
93 LG Chem Ltd 5,698
94 Roche Holding AG 5,609
95 Thales SA 5,536
96 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co Ltd 5,396
97 Schaeffler AG 5,301
98 Applied Materials Inc 5,272
99 Renault SAS 5,109
100 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG 5,102
101 LOreal SA 5,080
102 University of California 5,053
103 MediaTek Inc 5,033
104 ZF Friedrichshafen AG 4,987
105 On Semiconductor Corp 4,974
106 Facebook Inc 4,931
107 ZTE Corp 4,878
108 T Mobile US Inc 4,846
109 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS 4,834
110 Marvell Technology Group Ltd 4,766
111 Industrial Technology Research Institute ITRI 4,764
112 Rolls Royce Holdings PLC 4,760
113 Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Angewandten Forschung eV 4,750
114 Aisin Seiki Co Ltd 4,745
115 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd 4,686
116 Deere and Co 4,643
117 Illinois Tool Works Inc 4,559
118 Ams AG 4,559
119 Bridgestone Corp 4,525
120 Tokyo Electron Ltd 4,497
121 Kia Motors Corp 4,470
122 Corning Inc 4,464
123 Exxon Mobil Corp 4,434
124 Samsung SDI Co Ltd 4,322
125 Seagate Technology PLC 4,290
126 Saudi Arabian Oil Co 4,286
127 Eaton Corp PLC 4,267
128 Commscope Holding Company Inc 4,190
129 Emerson Electric Co 4,178
130 TE Connectivity Ltd 4,133
131 Schneider Electric SE 4,133
132 Berkshire Hathaway Inc 4,121
133 Merck KGaA 4,078
134 Stanley Black and Decker Inc 3,958
135 Yazaki Corp 3,920
136 AU Optronics Corp 3,810
137 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp 3,800
138 Nvidia Corp 3,787
139 Becton Dickinson and Co 3,764
140 Carl Zeiss AG 3,763
141 CNH Industrial NV 3,687
142 Signify NV 3,682
143 Adobe Inc 3,654
144 Shin Etsu Chemical Co Ltd 3,569
145 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc 3,552
146 Advanced Micro Devices Inc 3,512
147 InterDigital Inc 3,473
148 Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA 3,460
149 Unilever PLC 3,406
150 Japan Display Inc 3,392
151 Compagnie de Saint Gobain SA 3,388
152 Henkel AG and Co KGaA 3,378
153 Analog Devices Inc 3,331
154 Faurecia SA 3,290
155 Lockheed Martin Corp 3,272
156 Sanofi SA 3,270
157 Rohm Co Ltd 3,263
158 Motorola Solutions Inc 3,256
159 Microchip Technology Inc 3,236
160 Xilinx Inc 3,218
161 Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd 3,212
162 BorgWarner Inc 3,146
163 Nippon Steel Corp 3,145
164 Yamaha Motor Co Ltd 3,132
165 FANUC Corp 3,111
166 Evonik Industries AG 3,087
167 Nikon Corp 2,992
168 Stryker Corp 2,986
169 Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd 2,951
170 Aptiv PLC 2,931
171 United Microelectronics Corp 2,908
172 Whirlpool Corp 2,908
173 LG Innotek Co Ltd 2,889
174 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV 2,883
175 ASML Holding NV 2,867
176 Mahle GmbH 2,864
177 State University System of Florida 2,863
178 SAP SE 2,835
179 Syngenta AG 2,832
180 Novartis AG 2,824
181 Merck and Co Inc 2,818
182 Daimler AG 2,741
183 Softbank Group Corp 2,739
184 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2,734
185 Omron Corp 2,716
186 Masco Corp 2,700
187 Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp 2,683
188 Nestle SA 2,682
189 AbbVie Inc 2,616
190 Nidec Corp 2,560
191 Daikin Industries Ltd 2,542
192 Electrolux AB 2,511
193 Samsung Electro Mechanics Co Ltd 2,501
194 Eastman Kodak Co 2,500
195 JTEKT Corp 2,478
196 Northrop Grumman Corp 2,451
197 Air Liquide SA 2,451
198 Bank of America Corp 2,440
199 Wistron Corp 2,433
200 Bristol Myers Squibb Co 2,422
201 L3Harris Technologies Inc 2,416
202 Total SA 2,409
203 Macronix International Co Ltd 2,400
204 Provenance Asset Group LLC 2,398
205 Casio Computer Co Ltd 2,397
206 Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc 2,394
207 Siemens Energy AG 2,377
208 Delta Electronics Inc 2,374
209 Fuji Electric Co Ltd 2,353
210 Magna International Inc 2,349
211 Kimberly Clark Corp 2,348
212 MinebeaMitsumi Inc 2,329
213 Lam Research Corp 2,327
214 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co 2,320
215 Tsinghua University 2,318
216 Walt Disney Co 2,314
217 Colgate Palmolive Co 2,312
218 Tencent Holdings Ltd 2,311
219 CH Boehringer Sohn AG and Co KG 2,274
220 Avaya Inc 2,252
221 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KAIST 2,224
222 Quarterhill Inc 2,207
223 Komatsu Ltd 2,193
224 NGK Insulators Ltd 2,138
225 Koch Industries Inc 2,134
226 EssilorLuxottica SA 2,133
227 Kobe Steel Ltd 2,123
228 Pfizer Inc 2,096
229 Juniper Networks Inc 2,083
230 BAE Systems PLC 2,078
231 Arkema SA 2,071
232 International Game Technology PLC 2,070
233 Autoliv Inc 2,056
234 Kao Corp 2,031
235 Haier Smart Home Co Ltd 2,028
236 HTC Corp 2,017
237 Chevron Corp 2,016
238 Shimano Inc 2,015
239 Cook Group Inc 2,012
240 IFP Energies Nouvelles IFPEN 2,010
241 Johnson Controls International PLC 2,009
242 Yamaha Corp 1,972
243 Nitto Denko Corp 1,965
244 IPvalue Management Inc 1,956
245 SKF AB 1,953
246 Wsou Investments LLC 1,940
247 KLA Corp 1,932
248 Innolux Corp 1,920
249 Orange SA 1,909
250 NetApp Inc 1,901
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This analysis calculates the world's largest active patent holders, including subsidiaries, as a snapshot in time as of January 4, 2021.