IBM became the first company to receive more than 8,000 U.S. patents in one year, beating its next closest (Samsung) by more than 2,500 U.S. patents. That is at a rate of 22 patents per day.
Of those patents, 2,700 were related to AI, cognitive computing and cloud computing.
Following them were a closely packed group featuring Qualcomm, Google and Intel with almost 8 patents per day while LG, Microsoft, TSMC and Sony are completing the top 10 with 5-6/day.
There’s an explanation for having so many patents. Companies don’t always put all this technology in action in their devices – they just want to make sure that no-one uses an idea they came up with first. And, of course, this graph shows us all patents, which stretch far beyond mobile divisions.
