While there were many inventions of note in 2013, like being able to charge your cellphone with coffee and better detection of and quicker treatments for cancer, who actually received the most patents? It appears IBM led all U.S. companies last year with 6,809 patents awarded in 2013. That’s an average rate of almost 19 patents approved per day! This isn’t anything new for IBM, which has been leading the way for patents in the U.S. for 21 consecutive years.
Next up came Samsung with its slew of mobile technology including the popular Galaxy series. Interestingly, Google and Apple landed into the top 20 patent ranking list for the first time as we enter the new era of tech companies catching up to older electronic manufacturing ones like Sony and General Electric.
You can check out the top 15 U.S. patent rankings below provided by Statista and Mashable:
While receiving a patent for a new technology can be a beneficial process, you’ll notice only high-revenue companies can afford to play the patent game with any frequency. And some countries like New Zealand have even moved to end patents for basic software due to their abuses by companies looking toward more profits rather than progress.
