Top Patenting Powerhouses of 2024

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In 2006, IEEE Spectrumranked patenting powerhouses in our first annual patent survey. The survey, performed by the analysis agency 1790 Analytics, examined the quantity and affect of U.S. patents generated by greater than 1,000 organizations. Semiconductor producer Micron Know-how got here out on prime on the time, with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Broadcom rounding out the highest 5.

Almost 20 years later, each firm on the highest 10 record has been usurped. As soon as mighty corporations have fallen within the ranks, others have come and gone, and the highest spots are largely crammed by right this moment’s Big Tech corporations. Instead of semiconductors and computer systems, the highest classes on this 12 months’s scorecard are all about Internet services—the class labeled “Telecom and Web”—and consumer electronics.

Digging into the info reveals Amazon’s would possibly, the hidden energy of subsidiaries, and which international locations are producing U.S. patents—it’s not simply the United States. You’ll be able to discover all of it for your self within the interactive graphic under. Merely click on on a class to see which corporations produced probably the most highly effective patent portfolios in 2024.

The rankings are based mostly on Pipeline Energy, a metric calculated by 1790 Analytics that mixes a number of parts of a corporation’s patent portfolio into one quantity. Along with the variety of patents granted in a given 12 months, this metric takes into consideration 4 variables representing the standard and affect of these patents. (Extra particulars on the calculations are under within the Methodology part.)

Amazon Tops the Checklist

At a look, it’s clear that Amazon leads with the very best patent energy. The tech large has produced a extra influential patent portfolio than total trade classes.

Nonetheless, Amazon didn’t produce the most important quantity of patents in 2024. That achievement goes to Samsung; with greater than 9,000 patents, the electronics firm was granted greater than twice the quantity produced by the second most prolific firm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

In the meantime, Amazon ranked twentieth when it comes to the uncooked variety of patents. So how does it have the most important energy? In brief, as a result of its patents are usually cited extra often, and by a wide range of different patents. Equally, Snap, the corporate that owns Snapchat and Bitmoji, ranks above extra frequent filers Qualcomm and Google, regardless of being granted simply 770 patents final 12 months.

Hidden Energy in Subsidiaries

A number of corporations have a better patent energy than is straight away seen, when you think about their subsidiaries. For instance, Alphabet is categorized as a conglomerate with a patent energy of about 4,056. However it has two subsidiaries: Google and Waymo, each within the Telecom and Internet class. Including in its subsidiaries, Alphabet’s patent energy would roughly double, attaining a rating larger than these of all the opposite conglomerates mixed.

Protection contractor RTX (previously Raytheon) has probably the most subsidiaries included within the knowledge assortment. Seven corporations listed within the Aerospace class are all owned by RTX, along with RTX itself. Including their mixed patent energy to RTX’s accounts for greater than two-thirds of the mixed patent energy of all Aerospace corporations. RTX is the one firm with greater than two subsidiaries included within the survey. Sony, Johnson & Johnson, and GE Vernova all have two every, and a number of other different corporations have one.

In Consumer Electronics, Apple leads the pack by a big margin, with about 40 p.c of the class’s patent energy. Samsung has patents filed each beneath its major firm, Samsung Electronics, and a subsidiary that focuses on display technology. These two corporations take the second and third place within the class. However even grouped collectively, their mixed patent energy is properly behind Apple’s.

Western Digital’s Sandisk Corp, within the Pc Peripherals class, is the subsidiary with the most important patent energy for 2024. Sandisk has a rating of about 5,087, greater than triple that of its mother or father firm. In actual fact, Sandisk’s successes in flash storage led to its launch as an independent public company in February of 2025.

Splunk, owned by Cisco, tops the Computer Software class, beating out Microsoft, Oracle, and Intuit. This firm makes a speciality of amassing and organizing massive quantities of machine-generated knowledge. Whereas Splunk is much less of a family title than Microsoft, its analysis into managing knowledge generated by AI has helped launch it to the highest of its class.

General, the variety of AI patents filed has grown over the previous few years, in accordance with 1790 Analytics. Though many of those have been submitted by organizations within the Pc Software program class, some AI powerhouses fall beneath different classes, like Conglomerates.

Which International locations Are Producing U.S. Patents?

The businesses represented right here embrace solely these with at the very least 25 patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace in 2024. Out of 247 organizations that meet this requirement, 148 have been from the US. So the place else are corporations submitting U.S. patents from?

Japan is available in second place, with 24 corporations. These corporations span a variety of classes, together with Client Electronics, Pc Peripherals, and Semiconductors. The Japanese firm with the very best patent energy is Semiconductor Vitality Laboratory, taking the highest spot in its class.

After Japan, Germany and South Korea are tied with 9 corporations every, and Taiwan has eight listed. The South Korean corporations are practically all within the Client Electronics or Automotive and Transportation classes, the Taiwanese corporations are largely in Pc Peripherals, and the German corporations span a wider vary of classes. Following these, France and China each have seven corporations listed, and lots of extra international locations have one or two corporations listed.

Large Names, Small Patent Energy

Patent energy is however one measure of an organization’s affect. Some well-known corporations have surprisingly small patent energy, in comparison with their cultural or market affect. Microsoft, for instance, ranks thirty first in patent energy, regardless of being some of the beneficial corporations based mostly on
market capitalization.

Meta additionally falls surprisingly low, contemplating the corporate’s hefty analysis and improvement finances. In 2024, the social media mammoth spent US $43 billion, an quantity
surpassed only by Alphabet in a single survey. (Notably, the survey omitted Amazon as a result of it doesn’t report R&D bills as a separate line merchandise. Amazon’s R&D spending likely exceeds that of Alphabet.)

Wanting on the power of an organization’s patent portfolio doesn’t substitute these different metrics, nevertheless it does present one other view of a corporation’s affect. Amazon, Apple, Snap, Samsung, and Qualcomm, in that order, are 2024’s victors. What corporations will rise to the highest in 2025?