January 12, 1998
PTO 98-1
Richard Maulsby /Lisa-Joy Zgorski
(703) 305-8341
MEDIA ADVISORY 98-1
USPTO ANNOUNCES TOP PATENT EARNERS IBM AGAIN TOPS THE LIST
ARLINGTON, VA -- The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the top patent recipients for the 1997 calendar year. The USPTO received over 210,000 patent applications in 1997 and issued over 120,000 patents.
The following organizations received the most patents for inventions, i.e. utility patents.
| 1997 Rank | 1997 Patents | Organization | 1996 Rank | 1996 Patents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,724 | IBM | 1 | 1,867 |
| 2 | 1,381 | Canon | 2 | 1,541 |
| 3 | 1,095 | NEC Corporation | 4 | 1,043 |
| 4 | 1,058 | Motorola Inc | 3 | 1,064 |
| 5 | 935 | U.S. GOVERNMENT | 7 | 923 |
| 6 | 903 | Fujitsu Limited | 9 | 869 |
| 903 | Hitachi | 5 | 963 | |
| 8 | 892 | Mitsubishi | 6 | 934 |
| 9 | 862 | Toshiba Corporation | 8 | 914 |
| 10 | 859 | Sony | 10 | 855 |
| 11 | 795 | Eastman Kodak Company | 13 | 768 |
For the fifth straight year, IBM received more utility patents than any other non-Federal patenting organization. The top eleven patenting organizations consist of three U.S. corporations, seven Japanese corporations, and the U.S. government.
Patent information presented reflects patent ownership at
patent grant and does not include changes in ownership which
occur after the patent grant. Where more than one assignee
(owner)exists, patents are attributed to the first-named
assignee.
