At least as counted by patent filings, is your valuation client "creative?
Many fast-growth valuation clients will claim that they're "more creative than the competition," based on one metric or another. So, it's of interest to know that, at least in terms of patent filing, you need to be in the mid-four digits annually to qualify as a leader in IP creation. Here are the "standings" for 2011:
- IBM received the most U.S. patents, with 6180 granted, up about 5 percent from 2010. This marks IBM’s 19th year in first place.
- Yet, Asian companies are rapidly making gains in U.S. patent coverage. According to tomshardware.com, Asian firms now account for 25 or half of the top 50 U.S. patent-grant recipients. U.S. firms captured only 17 slots.
“Global companies, and especially Asian ones, are collecting U.S. patents at a dizzying pace, and now Asian firms hold eight of the top 10 slots in the 2011 ranking,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO at IFI Claims Patent Services. “This isn’t to say that U.S. companies have lost their verve for patent production, as their patent portfolios are also growing. It seems that Asian companies have apparently made it a higher priority.”
“Samsung remained in second place, but climbed by 8 percent to 4894 patents. Canon, Panasonic and Toshiba surpassed Microsoft and with 2821, 2559 and 2483 granted patents, respectively. Microsoft is now in sixth place with 2311 patents, which was down from 3094 in 2010, Apple climbed from rank 46 to 39 and added 676 patents in 2011, up from 563 in 2010,” tomshardware.com reported.