American Innovation Continues to Top the Field

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today the 2004 top 10 private sector patent recipients. Listed below are the 10 corporations receiving the most patents for inventions in 2004, along with their 2003 ranking. For the twelfth consecutive year, IBM received more patents than any other private sector organization.

“ American innovation and discoveries are the foundation of our technological strength worldwide," said Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. "Increasingly, patents have become an essential ingredient of our economic vitality, paving the way for investment in commerce and in research and development, and creating jobs for millions of Americans.”

* The listed patent counts are preliminary and are subject to correction. The final listing of patent counts for the top patenting organizations in 2004 will be available in the Patenting By Organizations report that should be available in April.

** Displayed calendar year counts for 2003 for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. include 12 patents issued to Matsushita Electronics Corporation, which has been merged into the parent company.

*** Displayed calendar year counts for 2003 for Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. include 403 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Company, 23 patents issued to Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc., and 41 patents issued to Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.

Unless noted, no attempt has been made to combine data based on subsidiary relationships. However, where possible, spelling variations and variations based on name changes have been merged into a single name (e.g., ESSO to EXXON). While every effort is made to accurately identify all organizational entities and to report data by a single organization name, achievement of a totally clean record is not expected, particularly in view of the many variations that occur in corporate identifications.

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