2024 Trends and Insights

Artificial Intelligence, particularly the generative form of it, dominated the technology scene again last year. And the quest to develop AI continued to hurtle the stock prices in 2024 of companies like Nvidia. Not surprisingly, Nvidia was the best performing stock of the Magnificent 7 last year, delivering an encore performance of its 2023 showing. Despite some calls that AI is overhyped, it’s a technology with staying power, evidenced by the semiconductor turf war currently being waged globally. As for other trends last year, crypto made an impressive comeback, and even corners of the metaverse look to be awakening a bit after a deep sleep (though some continue to sound the death knell on that one). In the background, underpinning and protecting all of this revolutionary technology are plenty of inventions, filed in record numbers last year. Below are the highlights of IFI CLAIMS’ 2024 roundup of U.S. patents, a year that exhibited the continued growth in patent market share from companies in Asia and the enduring (but slowing) run of technologies that emphasize digital data processing and transmission.

324,043 Total U.S. Grants
430,625 Total U.S. Applications
US, JP, CN Top Countries by U.S. Granted Patents
China Country with Highest Growth Rate

Samsung Stays On Top; Chip Manufacturer TSMC Takes Second

South Korean electronics company Samsung took the top spot for the third year running with 6,377 patents granted in 2024, nearly 2% of all granted patents in the U.S. In second place is semiconductor maker TSMC with 3,989 patents. San Diego-based wireless technology corporation Qualcomm slipped to third place from its previous position as second. Three years is a nice stretch for Samsung, but it needs another 26 years in the top spot to beat the amazing 29-year reign of Big Blue. IBM, for the third year in a row, has continued its descent down the ranking, landing in eighth place, with 2,465 patents in 2024, down from 3,658 in 2023 and 4,398 in 2022. This slide downward is by design rather than as the result of a stumble, as the company intentionally focuses its patent protection strategy on a handful of key areas, including quantum computing and AI. Intel, despite its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year in every other respect, is still racking up ample inventions. The company dropped one spot down the ladder but stands at a highly regarded number 11 spot on the ranking. As for big moves up the Top 50, Chinese companies Changxin Memory Technologies and Tencent ascended 57 and 54 places, respectively. Nokia jumped 29 spots, and Fujifilm climbed 20 places.

2024 U.S. Top 50 Leaders

Magnificent Patents

As a group, the Magnificent 7—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—returned another spectacular year of market returns. Nvidia led the pack with a 171% rise, followed by Meta (65%) and Tesla (62%), compared with 23% return from the S&P 500. Only Microsoft underperformed the benchmark.

How did they do with patent numbers last year? Just four of the bunch made our Top 50 ranking. Apple ranked the highest, coming in fourth place with 3,082 patents and moving up three rungs from last year. Google achieved the next highest ranking at number 10, with 2,054 patents—also moving up three places from the previous year. Microsoft and Amazon both made the top 20, though their standings are down from the previous year’s ranking.

U.S. Patent Activity of the Magnificent 7

Patent Applications and Grants Diverge

Patent applications continue to notch all-time highs, reaching a level of 430,625. Patent grants? Not so much, but at least they’re finally headed in the right direction. Although 2024 showed a 3.8% uptick over the previous year, grants have steadily stepped downward since 2019. Our best guess? The onslaught of the global pandemic, which increased the USPTO backlog to 813,000 unexamined applications in 2024. That backlog stood at 750,000 the previous year. In 2018, before COVID-19 shut down the world, the buildup was 540,000 in comparison. As a result, patent pendency right now stands at more than 20 months. At the end of 2022, the pendency rate was less than 17 months. The USPTO is trying to mitigate this bottleneck. The agency hired nearly 1,000 patent examiners last year and has plans for hiring another 1,600 this year.

U.S. Application and Grant Trends

Keeping Count by Country

It’s no surprise that U.S.-based companies claimed a little less than half of the more than 300,000 grants made in 2024. And Japan, as usual, remains in its solid second place with 43,364 patents granted, or 13% of the pie. China, meanwhile, leapfrogged past South Korea this year with 28,258 patents, winning back its third-place position from the previous year, while South Korea fell back to fourth place again, with 24,115 grants. On the European front, Germany is the top inventor country there with 14,044 grants.

Top Countries

Country Ups and Downs

By far, U.S. entities still cover the most patent ground, but they lost some terrain in 2024, down some 6,000 patents or 4%. Japan, China, South Korea, and Germany all gained last year. China rose the most, with a 31.5% increase over the previous year, a big recovery after a 12.5% decrease in patents last year. Switzerland’s patent portfolio grew by a respectable 20.5% year over year. Outside of the U.S., just one other country saw a decrease: Taiwan, down by 4.7%. Canada was largely flat.

Change in Patents by Country

U.S. Patents Around the World

Analyzing patent volumes by continent shows which regions in the world are accumulating the greatest number of protections. North America garnered the most grants with 148,686, but the continent decreased from the previous year, down 4%. Asia, on the other hand, continues its climb with 13% more patents than the previous year—despite Taiwan’s decline. Europe expanded, posting a 13.5% upturn over the previous year.

Change in Patents by Region

Top Granted Technologies: Same As It Ever Was

Patents have their own language known as the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system—a structure for organizing all the technologies that go into an invention. Tracking CPC codes is a way to follow the technologies that innovative companies are pursuing. In 2024, the top codes for granted patents were….2023 all over again, with G06F (electrical digital data processing) and H04L (transmission of digital information) ranking first and second. The use of these codes, however, is decreasing. The appearance of the G06F code decreased by 3%, while H04L fell by 2%. Technologies that grew the most in 2024 were H01M (batteries for conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy), up by 16%. Both A61P (medicinal preparations) and G06T (image data generation) were up by 9%. As for individual companies, Samsung’s top three class concentrations were H01L 21 (manufacture of semiconductors), G06F 03 (interface arrangements) and H01L 23 (semiconductor details). TSMC’s foremost CPC code (H01L 21) was the same as Samsung’s. Apple’s main technology focus (G06F 03) also overlapped with the top patent holder’s leading technologies.

Change in CPC Codes for Granted Patents

Applications: The Real Technology Tell

Winning a patent grant helps a company protect its competitive advantage. But patent applications provide investors with important nearer term alerts on where the technological hotbeds are. As with grants above, G06F and H04L are the most covered technologies in 2024, so clearly, these are highly sought after arenas. By the same token though, the growth curve for these technologies are heading downward, 3% and 4% respectively. Code H10K (organic electric solid-state devices) grew by 19% last year, followed by H01M (batteries), which rose by 17%. The biggest decliner for the year? G06N (computing arrangements based on computational models).

Change in CPC Codes for Patent Applications

To learn more about the terms and methods utilized in this report, click here.