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U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Office of Electronic Information Products
Patent Technology Monitoring Division (PTMD)

# CALENDAR YEAR 2002
PRELIMINARY LIST OF TOP PATENTING ORGANIZATIONS *

(report dated 22-Jan-2003)

This report presents a preliminary list of the organizations receiving the most patents for invention (i.e., utility patents) during the 2002 calendar year.

For the tenth consecutive year, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) ranks first among non-Federal patenting organizations. IBM received 3,288 utility patents for the year, slightly below its total for 2001. For 2002, the number of U.S. corporations included on the list of top ten patenting organizations doubles to four, up from two U.S. corporations on the top ten list for 2001.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha moves to second position with 1,893 patents and Micron Technology, Inc., in only its third year on the top ten list, moves to third position with 1,833 patents. NEC Corporation drops to fourth position.

Hewlett-Packard Company and General Electric Company join the top ten list for 2002 while Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Fujitsu Limited drop off the top ten list. This year marks the first appearance of Hewlett-Packard Company on the top ten list.

Included among the organizations on the top ten list that had the largest increases in the number of annual patent receipts are Hewlett-Packard Company (up 42 percent from 2001), General Electric Company (up 28 percent), and Hitachi, Ltd (up 26 percent).

The U.S. Government received 907 utility patents for the year, which would rank it sixteenth among the top patenting organizations for 2002.

This table displays a preliminary listing of the top twenty-five non-Federal patenting organizations receiving utility patents in calendar year 2003. Patent receipts by the U.S. Government are also displayed.
Preliminary Rank in 2002 * | Preliminary number of patents in 2002 * | Organization * | (Final Rank in 2001) | (Final number of patents in 2001)
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | 3,288 | International Business Machines Corporation | (1) | (3,411)
2 | 1,893 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | (3) | (1,877)
3 | 1,833 | Micron Technology, Inc. | (4) | (1,643)
4 | 1,821 | NEC Corporation | (2) | (1,953)
5 | 1,602 | Hitachi, Ltd | (8) | (1,271)
6 | 1,544 | Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. | (6) | (1,440)
7 | 1,434 | Sony Corporation | (7) | (1,363)
8 | 1,416 | General Electric Company | (13) | (1,107)
9 | 1,385 | Hewlett-Packard Company (a) | (15) | (978)
10 | 1,373 | Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha | (9) | (1,184)
11 | 1,328 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | (5) | (1,446)
12 | 1,211 | Fujitsu Limited | (10) | (1,166)
13 | 1,154 | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. | (14) | (1,086)
14 | 1,130 | Toshiba Corporation | (11) | (1,149)
15 | 1,077 | Intel Corporation | (16) | (809)
16 | 842 | Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (b) | (-) | (-)
17 | 717 | Texas Instruments, Incorporated | (17) | (799)
18 | 712 | Motorola Inc. | (19) | (778)
19 | 694 | Eastman Kodak Company | (20) | (719)
20 | 693 | Xerox Corporation | (21) | (716)
21 | 687 | Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd | (25) | (583)
22 | 679 | Robert Bosch GMBH | (23) | (700)
23 | 674 | Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | (18) | (793)
24 | 662 | Lucent Technologies | (12) | (1,109)
25 | 653 | Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Co., Ltd.) | (26) | (562)
| 907 | U.S. GOVERNMENT |  | (957)

## Notes:

> (a) Calendar year counts for 2002 for Hewlett-Packard Company include 159 patents issued to Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc. and 165 patents issued to Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.

> (b) Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. appears to have been previously obtaining patents under different organizational names such as U.S. Philips Corporation, which ranked 22nd in 2001 with 702 patents.

> * The listed patent counts are preliminary counts which are subject to correction. The final listing of patent counts for the top patenting organizations in 2002 will be available in the Patenting By Organizations report that should be available in early April.

> Please Note:
> Patent information presented reflects patent ownership at patent grant and does not include ownership changes that occur after the patent grant. Where more than one assignee (owner) exists, patents are attributed to the first-named assignee.

> 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.

## Contact Information -

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> Office of Electronic Information Products - PTMD
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> Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

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