Foreign companies are filing more patents in the US than home-grown companies, according to the latest figures from IFI Patent Intelligence. This is only the second time that this has happened, with 51% of applications in 2009 coming form outside the US.
Semiconductors and communications hardware remain the driving force in US patents, with 15,000 applications last year out of a total up 6% to 167,350. Bio drugs and biotechnology are relatively small, with 2,700 patents issued, up 17 percent and 1 percent respectively over the previous year.
Semiconductors and communications hardware remain the driving force in US patents, with 15,000 applications last year out of a total up 6% to 167,350. Bio drugs and biotechnology are relatively small, with 2,700 patents issued, up 17 percent and 1 percent respectively over the previous year.
"It's foolhardy to use this statistic to infer that American firms are losing ground to foreign competitors because with patents, it's important to consider quality, as well as quantity," said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence.
"What we're seeing this year is that innovation in American firms is far from declining, in fact, many had impressive gains and several posted record numbers of total new patents."
As a whole, US companies received approximately 7 percent more patents in 2009 than in 2008, compared to 6.5 percent by foreign companies. The US also received more than twice as many corporate patents than Japan (23%, while South Korea (5.6%) moved into third place displacing Germany (5.2%).
Top 50 patent companies 2009. Source: IFIClaims
[click to enlarge]
(1) includes 58 patents issued to former company name Matsushita Electric Industrial Co JP
(2) includes 4 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co
(3) includes 1 patent issued to former company name LG Philips LCD Co KR
Nick Flaherty has been covering technology and startups since 1990 and is based in Bristol, where he co-founded the SiliconSouthWest network. During that time he has worked for most of the electronics magazines and newspapers in the UK and several in Europe and the US, covering all areas of the industry. He blogs at The Embedded blog www.embeddedblog.blogspot.com and Portable Multimedia www.portablemultimedia.blogspot.com and at www.flaherty.co.uk.
"What we're seeing this year is that innovation in American firms is far from declining, in fact, many had impressive gains and several posted record numbers of total new patents."
As a whole, US companies received approximately 7 percent more patents in 2009 than in 2008, compared to 6.5 percent by foreign companies. The US also received more than twice as many corporate patents than Japan (23%, while South Korea (5.6%) moved into third place displacing Germany (5.2%).
Top 50 patent companies 2009. Source: IFIClaims
[click to enlarge]
(1) includes 58 patents issued to former company name Matsushita Electric Industrial Co JP
(2) includes 4 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co
(3) includes 1 patent issued to former company name LG Philips LCD Co KR
Nick Flaherty has been covering technology and startups since 1990 and is based in Bristol, where he co-founded the SiliconSouthWest network. During that time he has worked for most of the electronics magazines and newspapers in the UK and several in Europe and the US, covering all areas of the industry. He blogs at The Embedded blog www.embeddedblog.blogspot.com and Portable Multimedia www.portablemultimedia.blogspot.com and at www.flaherty.co.uk.