TOP PATENTING ORGANIZATIONS Page 1 of 2 Calendar Year 1996 This report lists the organizations receiving the most patents for invention (i.e., utility patents) during the 1996 CALENDAR year. For the fourth straight year, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) received more utility patents than any other non- Federal organization. IBM's 1,867 patents in 1996 represent a 35 percent increase over its patent total for the previous year and are the most patents ever granted to a non-Federal organization in a single year. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha ranks second for 1996 with 1,541 utility patents, a 42 percent increase over its patent total for the previous year. With Motorola, Inc. ranked third (1,064 patents), U.S. corporations comprise two of the top three patenting organizations for the calendar year. However, no other U.S. corporations are among the top ten non-Federal patenting organizations in 1996. The other top ten organizations are Japanese corporations, with Sony Corporation and Fujitsu Limited joining the list and U.S. corporations, Eastman Kodak Company and General Electric Company dropping from the list. The Federal Government received 923 utility patents in 1996 placing it seventh among all organizations receiving utility patents for the year. A complete listing of the top eleven organizations receiving utility patents in 1996 is shown below. 1996 1996 ( Rank ) (# Patents) Rank # Patents Organization (in 1995) ( in 1995 ) ---- --------- -------------------------- --------- ---------- 1 1,867 International Business Machines Corp (1) (1,383) 2 1,541 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (2) (1,087) 3 1,064 Motorola Inc. (4) (1,012) 4 1,043 NEC Corporation (5) (1,005) 5 963 Hitachi, Ltd. (8) (910) 6 934 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (6) (973) 7 923 U.S. GOVERNMENT (3) (1,026) 8 914 Toshiba Corporation (7) (969) 9 869 Fujitsu Limited (13) (724) 10 855 Sony Corporation (12) (754) 11 841 Matsushita Electric Indus. Co., Ltd. (9) (854) Please Note: 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. (continued) Page 2 of 2 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 report data by a single organization name, achievement of a totally clean record is not expected, particularly in view of the variations which occur in many corporate identifications. __________________________________________________________________ SOURCE: U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE Technology Assessment and Forecast data base (1-17-97) ------------------ Questions regarding this report should be directed to: (address as of 2/97) U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Office of Electronic Information Products Technology Assessment and Forecast Program PK3-Suite 441 Washington, DC 20231 tel (703) 306-2600 FAX (703) 306-2737