IFI CLAIMS, a leading producer of global patent databases and innovative web services, today announced the 2016 IFI CLAIMS U.S. Top 50, an annual ranking of top patent recipients that is trusted throughout the world. Using proprietary algorithms to analyze U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data, IFI CLAIMS accurately ranks global patent assignees by number of utility patents received each calendar year.
 
2016 saw 304,126 utility patent grants, the most on record in a single year, according to IFI CLAIMS. IBM again holds the #1 slot, which it has for 24 consecutive years, with 8,088 patents—up nearly 10 percent over 2015 and the most any company has ever acquired in a calendar year. The other Top 5 recipients remain unchanged from 2015 with Samsung at #2, Canon at #3, Qualcomm at #4, and Google again at #5.

The only two China mainland companies in the list are HuaWei Technologies and Boe Technology.  Huawei climbed from #48 in 2015 to #25 and Boeranked #40 for its first appearance. 

All of the patents generated by the IFI CLAIMS Top 50 are attributable to just 11 countries. The U.S. holds 41 percent of those patent counts followed by Japan at 28 percent; South Korea at 15 percent; Chinese Taiwan at 4 percent; Germany at 2.6 percent and China mainland at 2.5 percent. At 17 each, the U.S. and Japan are tied for the most assignees in the Top 50. Asian companies, however, now represent 50 percent of the total Top 50 counts and occupy 26 slots.
 
IFI data show that Brother, Canon, Denso, FUJIFILM, Honda, Panasonic, Ricoh, SELC, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba and Toyota all saw decreases.
  
“Although it was a bit of a down year for Japan, Asia as a whole continues to make impressive gains with U.S. patents,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. “American tech companies are similarly motivated but it will be interesting to see how this path plays out in five or ten years. At this rate, South Korea, China mainland and Chinese Taiwan will likely capture an even larger share of the U.S. patent market.”
 
Big gainers in 2016 include Nokia, up 74%; Hyundai up 39%; China’s Huawei Technologies, up 50%; Amazon, up 46%; and Intel, up 36% over 2015.

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