Tech companies work on products that they may or may not release many years down the line. What's more important for them is to obtain patents on their inventions so that they're covered in the event they ever decide to launch a new product.
Samsung files for and is granted thousands of patents every year by the USPTO. A new report reveals that the company has remained the largest patent filer in the United States for the second consecutive year.
Samsung holds the most patents in the United States
According to IFI Claims, IBM received 9,262 patents in 2019 while Samsung Electronics received 6,469 US patents, an increase of 11 percent. IBM has remained the single largest patent filer in the United States for an impressive 27 years straight. So you might be wondering, how does Samsung come out on top?
IFI introduced its Ultimate Patent Ownership analysis in 2018 to measure patents filed across all divisions of a company. For example, patents filed by a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics would also be included in this figure. Samsung Electronics was at the top with 61,608 active patent families when this metric was first published in 2018. Samsung remains at the top in 2019 with 76,638 active patent families compared to IBM's 37,304. Apple is in the 27th spot with 14,849 active patent families held.
It's easy to understand why IBM is at a distant number two overall. Samsung is one of the biggest players in the consumer electronics market and as such, it has to do a lot of research and development for products. IBM isn't really in the consumer electronics market any more so its R&D is largely focused around its enterprise and B2B activities.
