US claims record patent numbers in 2010, IBM leads

Patents awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rose by 31 percent in 2010, the largest increase on record, with IBM continuing to hold onto its position at the top for the 18^th year running.

According to figures published by IFI Claims, a producer of US patent databases and indexing services, the USPTO issued a record 219,614 utility patents last year with IBM accounting for 5,896, an increase of 20 percent from the previous year, and the highest ever recorded by one firm.

Samsung came in at second with 4,551, up 26 percent, while Microsoft saw an increase 6.5 percent to 3,094.

In fact all of the top fifty firms showed an increase apart from one, with most seeing increases in the double digits and many breaking records.

In terms of increase from the previous year it was Apple which stood out most with an increase of 94 percent.  Meanwhile Qualcomm (84 percent), NEC (74 percent), and SAP (70 percent), also saw significant gains.

"The tremendous increase in patent issues in 2010 suggests that so far the economy doesn't appear to have slowed patent flow significantly in the US," said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Claims Patent Services.  "Another important factor is the stepped up effort of the USPTO to improve turnaround times and its five-year strategic plan to increase efficiencies and reduce pendency.  The bottom line:  there is still a backlog of patents pending but the number of grants continues to grow even after a period of economic downturn."

The results also showed that US firms had recaptured their lead which had been lost to foreign firms over the previous two years.  US assignees accounted for 50.3 percent of patent grants in 2010, with the rest going to foreign firms, as compared to less than 49 percent last year.

The US received more than twice as many corporate patents than Japan (21.3%), the country with the second most U.S. patents issued in 2010.  South Korea (5.4%) remained in third place; Germany (5.2%) in fourth, with Taiwan in fifth (3.8%).

Broken down by market, the highest new patent activity included multiplex communications at 3.3 percent of the total. Solid-state devices and transistors were at 3.1 percent, while semiconductors accounted for 2.7 percent.

Computers and processing systems and biotechnology both accounted for two percent.