Technology giant IBM topped the US Patent Office’s 2012 ranking for the number of patents filed, with a total of 6,478 patents filed in the areas of big data, cloud, software, and social networking. Around 50 of the patents filed in 2012 came from IBM’s Irish operations.
The company said that between 1993 and 2012 IBM inventors received nearly 67,000 patents.
IBM’s tally was set by 8,000 inventors in 35 countries and the 2012 patent count exceeded the combined totals of Accenture, Amazon, Apple, EMC, HP, Intel, Oracle and Symantec.
This is the 20th consecutive year that IBM topped the annual list of US patent recipients.
“We are proud of this new benchmark in technological and scientific creativity, which grows out of IBM’s century-long commitment to research and development,” said Ginni Rometty, chairman and CEO, IBM.
“Most concretely, our 2012 patent record and the two decades of leadership it extends are a testament to thousands of brilliant IBM inventors – the living embodiments of our devotion to innovation that matters, for our clients, for our company and for the world,” Rometty said.
The top 10 list of 2012 US patent recipients
1. IBM – 6,478
2. Samsung – 5,081
3. Canon – 3,174
4. Sony – 3,032
5. Panasonic – 2,769
6. Microsoft – 2,613
7. Toshiba – 2,447
8. Hon Hai – 2,013
9. General Electric – 1,652
10. LG Electronics – 1,624
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