Samsung Electronics Ranks 2nd for 16 Consecutive Years in US Patent Acquisitions... Growth of Chinese Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Samsung Electronics was found to have acquired the second highest number of patents in the United States last year among companies worldwide. Following IBM, which has held the top spot for 29 years, Samsung Electronics has maintained the second place for 16 consecutive years since 2006.

According to the '2021 US Patent Acquisition Top 50' released on the 11th (local time) by US patent information specialist IFI Claims, Samsung Electronics acquired 6,355 patents in the US last year, ranking second. Although the number of patents decreased by 1% compared to 2020, the ranking remained unchanged. Samsung Electronics' patent acquisitions in the US ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 from 2011 to 2018 but rose to over 6,000 in 2019.

Capture of the 'Top 50 U.S. Patent Acquisitions in 2021' data released by IFI Claims, a U.S. patent information specialist company.

The company that acquired the most patents in the US last year was IBM, with 8,682 patents. Although this was a 5% decrease compared to 2020, IBM maintained first place with a gap of more than 2,000 patents over Samsung Electronics. Following were Canon (3,021 patents, 3rd), TSMC (2,798 patents, 4th), and Huawei (2,770 patents, 5th).

Among other Korean companies, LG Electronics secured 2,487 patents, ranking 8th. This was a 12% decrease compared to 2020, and the ranking dropped by one place. Samsung Display (1,975 patents) rose three places to 13th, Hyundai Motor (1,269 patents) remained 20th, and Kia (1,205 patents) dropped one place to 25th.

The total number of patents filed in the US last year was 327,329, a 7.5% decrease from the previous year, with US companies acquiring more than half, over 150,000 patents. Following Japan (47,105 patents), Korea ranked third with 21,264 patents. However, the gap with China, ranked fourth, was only 585 patents, leading to forecasts that China will soon surpass Korea in annual patent acquisitions. IFI explained, "While countries such as the US, Japan, and Korea saw a decrease in patents acquired in the US, China showed an increasing trend."

This trend can be observed not only in the US but also in global patent numbers. Apart from patents acquired within the US last year, when counting the number of valid patent families registered in two or more countries, Samsung Electronics topped the list with over 90,000 patents. Samsung Electronics has consistently ranked first in this indicator since the data collection began in 2018. Following Samsung Electronics, Chinese entities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Huawei occupied ranks 2 through 7. Until 2020, companies from various countries such as IBM (2nd), Canon (3rd), Microsoft (4th), and Bosch (5th) were in the top ranks, but the surge in patent applications by Chinese companies has reversed the rankings. The gap in the number of patents held between the 2nd-ranked Chinese Academy of Sciences and Samsung Electronics is about 12,000 patents.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.