Samsung Electronics having almost 100000 patents in the U.S. ranked first in possessing the most patent among global companies. Overtaking IBM Microsoft and Intel all representing the U.S. Samsung maintained the top position for four consecutive years from 2018.

According to the industry on 29 Samsung Electronics ranked 1st by securing 95194 cumulative patents as of January 1 of this year in the Top 100 Patents in the U.S. 2021 recently published by the British patent journal IAM. Invention patents published in the U.S. including design patents are subject to investigation excluding those whose patent rights have expired. Samsungs number of valid patents in the U.S. increased by 9.16 percent from a year ago.

Samsung Electronics will remain No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year since it was first announced the U.S. patent rankings in IAM in 2018. According to IAM as of early this year Samsung Electronics patents that are applied and having examination are 18641 patents in the United States. Among them 8955 applications were filed last year. Samsung also topped the list of patent applications ranking in 2020.

The rate of registration which is completed after the governments examination and register was calculated 19.6 percent as of the beginning of this year. This means that when Samsung Electronics applies for 100 patents about 20 technologies are actually recognized as valid rights. Samsung Electronics patent registration rate in the U.S. dropped by 1 percentage point from 20.6 percent of a year ago.

IBM the U.S. company called Big Blue ranked 2nd after Samsung Electronics. According to them they secured 61862 cumulative valid patents in the U.S. as of the beginning of this year. This is an increase of 11.11 percent year-on-year. IBMs patent application was calculated 5720 patents in the U.S. in 2020. Last year while Samsung Electronics annual patent applications increased 17.3 percent IBMs annual patent applications decreased 20.8 percent. IBM however had a slightly lead over Samsung Electronics with 22 percent in patent registration rate.

Japans Canon ranked third with 40892 cases. Canons number of valid patents in the U.S. has increased 5.78 percent year-on-year. The rank between Samsung Electronics IBM and Canon have not been changed in the U.S. patent registration list for the past four years IAM explained.

LG Electronics which ranked fifth last year has risen to fourth this year. LG Electronics has 38275 cumulative patents 9.46 percent increased year-on-year. In particular LG Electronics leads Canon in the number of patent applications which are currently under examination (8216) and patent applicant in 2020 (4492). Moreover the patent registration rate is 21.5 percent 5 percent higher than Canon (16.2 percent). Other than that Microsoft (38107) Intel (33151) Alphabet (3656) Sony (28090) Qualcomm (26025) and Panasonic (25770) were rated their names among the top 10.

Korea Japan and the U.S. are the only top 10 companies registered in U.S. patents. Excluding Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics among the South Koreas company ranked in top 100 were SK Group ranked 54th Hyundai Motor ranked 55th LG Display ranked 65th and ETRI ranked 90th.

Samsung and LG on the other hand ranked high in patent possession in Europe and China as well as the U.S. According to IAM Samsung Electronics has 19945 patents as of early this year ranking fourth in Europe. Followed by LG Group ranked fifth with 18093 cases.

Moreover Samsung Electronics ranked fifth in China with 21297 cases the highest among foreign companies and institutions excluding local institutions such as Huawei and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. LG Group also holds 17965 patents in China ranking seventh after ZTE.