Samsung Electronics grabbed the No. 2 spot in U.S. patent grants among global corporate giants in 2018, industry data showed Thursday. Samsung Electronics, the world’s top smartphone and memory chip maker, received 5,850 U.S. patent grants last year, up 13 from the previous year, according to the data from IFI Claims Patent Services, provider of a top global patent data platform.
IBM topped the list with 9,100 grants, up 1 percent from a year earlier, maintaining the U.S. company’s position as top patent leader for a 26th consecutive year.
Canon followed Samsung with 3,056. Intel came next with 2,735 then LG Electronics with 2,474. All registered declines from a year earlier.
Other Korean firms included Samsung Display, which ranked 14th with 1,948 grants. Hyundai Motor placed 19th with 1,369.
Last year, U.S. patent grants totaled 308,853, down 3.5 percent from the previous year.
By country, the United States took up the largest share, at 46 percent, followed by Japan with 16 percent, Korea with 6.5 percent, Germany with 5 percent and China 4 percent.
China was the only major patenting country to report an on-year increase in the 2018 patent grants.