1,000 US patent club 2016

Last issue, we revealed the companies that own the 100 largest portfolios of active US patents. Here, we expand the list to name each of the 383 entities that hold portfolios of over 1,000 assets, representing over 57% of all US patents currently in force

Defining categories

A glossary of terms used in this article.

Applications

The number of pending, published US patent applications. These are published applications with no corresponding granted US patent which are no older than five years. The number of applications is derived from both assignment data and analysis of inventors and technology, since many applications are not assigned at the time of filing.

Company

A normalised list of public and private patent holders, aggregated by hand with all publicly available subsidiary information.

Grants

US patents granted and in force, including utility, design and plant patents. Data is sourced directly from the US Patent and Trademark Office assignments database and is aggregated for name variations and subsidiary data. Patents that are expired, unmaintained or withdrawn are removed from this count.

Tech Score

A value calculated from the rate at which the utility

patents in a portfolio are being cited and normalised against a cohort group of patents selected by age. The strength of this method is that it does not depend on the absolute number of citations and ignores self-citations. A high score generally points to strong positioning of a patent portfolio in an important technology area. However, a weakness of this score is that if an area is too new, sufficient citation data typically does not exist.

Three-year application CAGR

This important IP growth metric is the year-on-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the number of patent applications filed during the last three years. This is based on the cumulative count of published applications and is not adjusted for whether a patent has issued corresponding to that application. Also, this is based on the publication date, not the filing date, which creates an average 18-month time lag for this metric. Still, this can yield crucial insight into the nature of a company’s IP development and its competitive relevance.

Disclaimer

This data does not rank patent portfolio values outright, although some of these metrics can be used as secondary indicators of innovation. The opinions presented in this article are not intended to be, and should not be construed as, legal or investment advice. A company’s inclusion in this article is not to be construed as an investment recommendation for such company’s securities.

In Issue 77 of IAM we revealed the top 100 largest entities owning the most granted, in-force patents in the United States (see “The largest US patent portfolios are shrinking”, IAM 77). We also included their patent growth rates, as well as a bibliometric measure of the rate at which other companies are citing each portfolio, called Tech Score. That list was the fourth iteration of the US Patent 100 and started with a higher number of minimum grants compared to the second edition – from 4,024 in 2014 to 4,400 in 2015. We also discussed many notable moves – up, down and off the list – when compared to 2014.

In this issue, we unveil the US Patent 1,000: the full list of 383 entities which own at least 1,000 in-force patents in the United States. In addition, we highlight the top 20 entities with the highest three-year patent application compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and Tech Score. This list is one of the best examples of the importance of securing a strong IP position for companies of any size.

To review the methodology, this data comes from PatentVest – a fully integrated analytic and reporting platform developed from the ground up with over 75,000 man hours by MDB Capital Group. PatentVest measures, scores and ranks over 4,000 public and private companies, unifying over 4 million granted US patents and over 2 million US patent applications on file. These man hours have been spent cleaning data directly from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and adding outside information on ownership and subsidiaries based on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) data. The data used for this report was current as of December 30 2015.

This year’s list highlights the increased patent acquisition and consolidation activity over the last few years. As some of the largest US patent portfolios divest some of their portfolios, some smaller entities – including industry-specific non-practising entities – are growing. While Samsung and IBM continue to dominate and grow their respective portfolios at an impressive rate (CAGR > 10%), IBM’s patent transfers helped Canon (CAGR 9%) to oust IBM from second place.

This year 27 new companies, each with over 1,000 in-force US patents, join the US Patent 1000. They include companies such as IP Bridge, WiLAN, Socionext, LinkedIn and Unwired Planet – all of which increased their portfolios mostly through purchases and transfers in 2015. This patent consolidation and acquisition trend illustrates the continued importance of patents and the potential value of consolidating related portfolios.

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co (CSOT) outpaces last year’s growth leader ZTE with the highest CAGR score, representing annualised growth of 114% in published patent applications over the last three years. Adobe continues to file aggressively with a 52% CAGR score, while Amazon.com comes a close third with a 36% annualised patent filing growth.

In addition to illustrating the importance of developing formidable IP positions, the US Patent 1,000 is also useful in identifying which companies have made significant movement in the last year. For example, Kyocera, RPX Corporation, GlobalFoundries, Merck, Huawei, Cypress Semiconductor, Lenovo, CommScope Technologies, Bank of America, National Tsing Hua University, Cree, Milton Roy, Walt Disney and Avago Technologies have each moved up at least 20 spots over the last 12 months. Many of these leaps up the list are indications of significant patent acquisitions and consolidation. Most notable are GlobalFoundries (patents assigned from IBM), Merck (acquisition of Cubist), Cypress Semiconductor (merger with Spansion) and CommScope (from TE Connectivity).

Fastest-growing portfolios

For this list we review applications and, more importantly, the three-year patent application CAGR. Applications include pending published US patent applications – that is, published applications with no corresponding granted US patent which are no older than five years. The number of applications is derived from both assignment data and analysis of inventors and technology, since many applications are not assigned at the time of filing.

The three-year patent application CAGR is an important IP growth metric, as it is the year-on-year compound annual growth rate of the number of patent applications filed during the last three years. This is based on the cumulative count of published applications and is not adjusted for whether a patent has been issued corresponding to that application. Also, this is based on the publication date, not the filing date, which creates an average 18-month time lag for this metric. However, this can still yield crucial insights into the nature of a company’s IP development and its competitive relevance.

Portfolio strength

Our Tech Score ranking is calculated from the rate at which the utility patents in a portfolio are being cited and normalised against a cohort group of patents selected by age. The strengths of this method are that it does not depend on an absolute number of citations and ignores self-citations; a high score generally points to strong positioning of a patent portfolio in an important technology area. A weakness of this method is that sufficient citation data typically does not exist if an area is too new.

Table 1. Entities that own at least 1,000 active US patents

Rank	Company	Grants	Apps	Three-year app CAGR	Tech Score
1	Samsung Electronics	63,434	22,077	10%	0.81
2	Canon	40,011	8,525	9%	0.75
3	IBM	39,436	13,968	11%	0.9
4	Microsoft	31,692	8,050	8%	1.01
5	Sony	29,988	8,096	7%	0.85
6	Panasonic	29,478	7,126	7%	0.8
7	Intel	26,720	4,033	8%	0.89
8	Toshiba	25,518	8,643	9%	0.81
9	General Electric	24,502	9,068	11%	0.81
10	Hitachi	21,979	4,371	6%	0.79
11	LG ELECTRONICS	21,038	6,439	12%	0.83
12	Alphabet	20,505	5,229	16%	1.01
13	Fujitsu	19,186	5,799	8%	0.8
14	Fujifilm	19,158	4,062	6%	0.74
15	Micron Technology	19,054	1,061	6%	0.74
16	Seiko Epson	17,700	3,365	7%	0.76
17	Intellectual Ventures	17,545	2,225	6%	0.92
18	Qualcomm	16,877	7,678	17%	0.97
19	Siemens	16,820	4,997	8%	0.78
20	Texas Instruments	16,744	1,682	7%	0.81
21	Ricoh	15,700	2,456	9%	0.77
22	Oracle	14,802	1,599	6%	0.95
23	GlobalFoundries	14,649	2,531	13%	0.86
24	Hon Hai/Foxconn	14,360	7,547	12%	0.81
25	Toyota	13,326	4,475	14%	0.86
26	Apple	13,236	4,366	19%	1.03
27	Xerox	13,048	1,762	9%	0.75
28	Sharp	13,040	3,963	8%	0.81
29	Honda	12,957	1,990	7%	0.79
30	AT&T	12,636	1,936	10%	0.92
31	Hewlett-Packard Co	12,387	1,613	4%	0.83
32	Cisco	12,291	1,595	10%	0.99
33	Alcatel-Lucent	12,199	2,246	6%	0.88
34	General Motors	12,164	3,146	10%	0.85
35	Honeywell	12,008	2,713	8%	0.83
36	Avago	11,732	927	7%	0.8
37	NEC	11,555	3,679	8%	0.83
38	Taiwan Semiconductor	11,399	2,873	22%	0.83
39	Robert Bosch GmbH	11,368	4,301	10%	0.78
40	Johnson & Johnson	11,293	3,006	8%	1.03
41	Ericsson	11,203	3,890	14%	0.93
42	Denso Corp	11,002	2,335	7%	0.77
43	Broadcom	10,748	2,120	9%	0.87
44	Renesas Electronics	10,616	1,256	4%	0.76
45	Mitsubishi Electric	10,152	2,963	10%	0.78
46	Koninklijke Philips NV	9,853	3,943	6%	0.94
47	Brother Industries	9,517	1,189	10%	0.74
48	Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co	9,417	1,821	10%	0.95
49	STMicroelectronics NV	9,391	1,401	9%	0.76
50	Boston Scientific	9,219	1,782	7%	0.99
51	Nokia	9,177	4,003	8%	0.98
52	Medtronic	9,142	2,178	6%	1.15
53	Boeing	9,065	1,631	10%	0.82
54	EI du Pont	8,987	2,231	7%	0.66
55	Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co	8,931	1,682	9%	0.77
56	Procter & Gamble	8,611	1,905	8%	0.75
57	Ford	8,595	2,828	19%	0.86
58	3M	8,497	1,946	7%	0.82
59	BlackBerry	8,381	2,503	12%	0.93
60	SK Hynix Inc	8,175	1,589	10%	0.74
61	BASF	7,991	2,816	6%	0.69
62	Konica Minolta	7,752	1,703	6%	0.75
63	United Technologies	7,299	2,820	15%	0.78
64	LG Display Co	7,114	1,015	7%	0.74
65	Western Digital	7,068	474	5%	0.82
66	Olympus Corp	7,029	1,785	9%	0.84
67	Schlumberger	7,009	2,068	9%	0.87
68	Infineon	6,779	1,342	10%	0.78
69	Applied Materials	6,249	1,811	7%	0.8
70	Marvell	6,189	344	17%	0.91
71	Eastman Kodak	6,020	901	5%	0.96
72	Sumitomo Electric	5,838	1,601	9%	0.76
73	Covidien	5,827	2,381	13%	1.09
74	TDK Corp	5,721	646	4%	0.78
75	Freescale Semiconductor	5,627	1,020	12%	0.87
76	Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute	5,399	4,172	14%	0.84
77	SAP	5,377	1,983	11%	0.92
78	Seagate Technology	5,352	659	8%	0.81
79	Airbus Group SE	5,312	1,657	10%	0.8
80	Roche Holdings	5,295	1,885	7%	0.76
81	Kyocera	5,185	1,970	16%	0.84
82	Advanced Micro Devices	5,152	698	11%	0.85
83	Abbott Laboratories	5,123	1,357	8%	0.96
84	Merck & Co	5,080	1,402	6%	0.7
85	Industrial Technology Research Institute	5,050	1,311	8%	0.78
86	Huawei	5,036	4,324	26%	0.9
87	Murata Manufacturing	5,034	1,204	11%	0.7
88	Dow Chemical	5,029	1,473	12%	0.76
89	Baker Hughes	5,004	1,335	10%	0.85
90	Tokyo Electron	4,929	1,506	8%	0.77
91	Lockheed Martin	4,896	492	5%	0.86
92	Danaher Corp	4,895	896	7%	0.76
93	University of California System	4,876	1,901	10%	0.86
94	Verizon Communications Inc	4,804	1,313	18%	1.01
95	Continental AG	4,713	1,202	8%	0.74
96	Nissan Motor	4,693	959	9%	0.82
97	Caterpillar	4,539	1,809	17%	0.8
98	EMC Corp	4,532	167	6%	1.03
99	Monsanto	4,469	675	14%	0.64
100	Halliburton Company	4,400	1,636	16%	0.86
101	Rohm	4,224	585	5%	0.73
102	Bayer AG	4,178	1,903	7%	0.71
103	Sprint Corporation	4,168	71	6%	0.97
104	Emerson Electric	4,162	958	10%	0.84
105	Exxon Mobil	4,084	794	9%	0.73
106	Stanley Black & Decker	4,056	401	6%	0.81
107	Cypress Semiconductor	4,048	210	5%	0.8
108	ABB	4,033	1,104	10%	0.79
109	Nikon Corp	4,016	800	5%	0.78
110	Novartis	3,978	1,455	9%	0.78
111	Nike	3,977	843	19%	0.94
112	Motorola Solutions	3,967	505	3%	0.94
113	RPX Corporation	3,945	333	6%	1.02
114	Lenovo	3,836	1,551	16%	0.88
115	Dell	3,836	962	12%	0.92
116	AU Optronics	3,821	823	8%	0.75
117	Raytheon	3,781	720	11%	0.82
118	Altera	3,781	137	8%	0.82
119	Amazon.com	3,761	727	36%	1.12
120	Sanofi-Aventis	3,713	1,220	9%	0.65
121	Bridgestone	3,711	987	9%	0.73
122	TECHNICOLOR	3,676	947	6%	0.82
123	Eaton Corp	3,651	704	11%	0.8
124	Hyundai Motor Co	3,643	2,773	26%	0.84
125	SanDisk	3,624	559	11%	1
126	Illinois Tool Works	3,534	859	7%	0.74
127	Round Rock Research	3,499	23	1%	0.86
128	Socionext	3,493	177	4%	0.75
129	Wi-Lan Inc	3,908	70	10%	0.65
130	Sanyo Electric Co	3,473	989	3%	0.75
131	Media Tek	3,411	1,200	12%	0.83
132	US Navy	3,326	420	10%	0.79
133	Corning	3,317	1,129	11%	0.84
134	Aisin Seiki	3,308	844	9%	0.87
135	Kimberly-Clark	3,281	502	5%	0.83
136	TE Connectivity	3,263	685	11%	0.87
137	Xilinx	3,252	41	9%	0.89
138	ASML Holding	3,251	545	5%	0.73
139	Samsung SDI	3,238	1,778	9%	0.75
140	St Jude Medical	3,210	831	11%	1.03
141	NXP Semiconductors	3,183	654	6%	0.79
142	Yazaki Corporation	3,147	863	14%	0.72
143	International Game Technology	3,088	452	8%	1.05
144	Symantec	3,036	115	7%	1.15
145	Berkshire Hathaway	2,996	635	10%	0.79
146	Safran	2,987	1,316	14%	0.79
147	Lam Research	2,979	453	9%	0.79
148	Toshiba Tec	2,963	1,237	6%	0.74
149	Shin-Etsu Chemical	2,943	682	8%	0.7
150	United Microelectronics	2,937	432	10%	0.72
151	Osram Licht	2,893	940	11%	0.78
152	Daimler	2,873	370	4%	0.8
153	NVIDIA	2,858	1,066	27%	0.9
154	Deere & Co	2,854	433	8%	0.81
155	Carl Zeiss Holding	2,822	744	7%	0.75
156	Masco	2,793	185	9%	0.81
157	Formosa Plastics	2,712	304	4%	0.71
158	Adobe Systems	2,682	869	52%	1.03
159	Delphi Automotive	2,682	443	4%	0.76
160	Samsung Electro Mechanics	2,671	3,389	20%	0.83
161	Avaya	2,649	539	10%	0.99
162	Yamaha	2,642	261	4%	0.71
163	Memjet Technology	2,638	156	1%	0.55
164	Sumitomo Chemical	2,619	1,206	7%	0.67
165	Northrop Grumman	2,578	140	4%	0.76
166	NTT DoCoMo	2,575	944	9%	0.91
167	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	2,574	1,145	13%	0.99
168	Funai Electric	2,546	438	5%	0.66
169	ON Semiconductor	2,543	293	7%	0.75
170	Bristol-Myers Squibb	2,480	290	5%	0.66
171	Macronix International	2,412	241	7%	0.76
172	Rolls-Royce Holdings	2,406	1,008	11%	0.8
173	Whirlpool	2,321	707	13%	0.82
174	Syngenta AG	2,318	484	11%	0.64
175	Analog Devices	2,309	366	13%	0.86
176	Yamaha Motor	2,288	193	5%	0.71
177	The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company	2,274	176	7%	0.65
178	Commscope Technologies	2,264	192	5%	0.92
179	Facebook	2,234	1,023	25%	1.02
180	Yahoo!	2,197	1,051	8%	1.07
181	InterDigital	2,192	736	9%	0.88
182	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries	2,190	1,231	13%	0.8
183	Magna International	2,181	426	8%	0.89
184	GlaxoSmithKline	2,174	549	3%	0.7
185	Schneider Electric	2,173	481	10%	0.85
186	Compagnie de Saint-Gobain	2,163	783	10%	0.81
187	Schaeffler Technologies	2,134	621	9%	0.73
188	LG Chemical	2,106	1,234	22%	0.79
189	CNH Industrial	2,103	419	12%	0.73
190	Evonik Industries	2,102	782	7%	0.68
191	Chi Mei Corporation	2,100	533	6%	0.74
192	Hoya Corporation	2,084	295	4%	0.77
193	Casio Computer	2,083	568	12%	0.84
194	Nitto Denko Corp	2,069	1,463	11%	0.76
195	Alstrom	2,048	826	12%	0.74
196	Juniper Networks	2,045	199	11%	1.02
197	Oki Electric Industry	2,045	284	7%	0.79
198	BMW	2,028	373	12%	0.76
199	Synopsys	2,024	195	9%	0.94
200	Sumitomo Rubber Industry	2,015	590	12%	0.77
201	aTyr Pharma	1,998	778	7%	0.82
202	Suntory Beverage & Food	1,965	410	8%	0.83
203	Japan Display	1,964	817	16%	0.86
204	Bank of America	1,960	1,266	24%	0.9
205	Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal	1,958	715	11%	0.7
206	Seika Holdgins Corp	1,953	291	7%	0.71
207	National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology	1,950	428	5%	0.73
208	Saudi Basic Industries Corporation	1,941	444	8%	0.62
209	Bally Technologies	1,939	556	10%	1.02
210	Asahi Kasei Corp	1,934	561	10%	0.78
211	Ps4 Luxco Sarl	1,919	217	8%	0.8
212	Tessera Technologies	1,908	248	10%	0.95
213	Royal Dutch Shell	1,903	653	8%	0.88
214	California Institute of Technology	1,898	519	11%	0.91
215	Becton Dickinson & Co	1,894	501	9%	0.97
216	NetApp	1,881	340	21%	1.07
217	Stanford University	1,881	717	11%	0.93
218	Furukawa Electric Co	1,877	412	8%	0.74
219	Boehringer Ingelheim International	1,877	589	8%	0.7
220	The French National Centre for Scientific Research	1,875	1,063	13%	0.76
221	Nuance Communications	1,869	309	9%	1.06
222	Rockwell Automation	1,860	359	11%	0.86
223	Chevron	1,846	583	10%	0.78
224	National Tsing Hua University	1,840	837	16%	0.82
225	NGK Insulators	1,828	347	6%	0.68
226	Delta Electronics	1,825	646	11%	0.8
227	Henkel	1,807	631	9%	0.72
228	JTEKT Corporation	1,795	366	10%	0.74
229	Kao Corp	1,788	363	6%	0.65
230	Zeppelin Systems	1,759	402	6%	0.8
231	KLA-Tencor	1,720	328	15%	0.82
232	Valeo	1,718	638	12%	0.72
233	Fairchild Semiconductor International	1,696	312	10%	0.87
234	Wistron Corp	1,694	889	25%	0.9
235	L'Oreal	1,693	632	5%	0.68
236	Komatsu LTD	1,685	362	15%	0.81
237	FIH Mobile	1,680	722	9%	0.84
238	Ecolab	1,675	418	10%	0.72
239	US Department of Health and Human Services	1,673	437	9%	0.73
240	Cree	1,668	489	15%	1.08
241	The University of Texas System	1,658	737	10%	0.89
242	WARF	1,653	378	9%	0.79
243	ZTE Corp	1,652	1,731	26%	0.93
244	Cadence Design Systems	1,647	29	2%	0.97
245	Thales SA	1,640	525	9%	0.81
246	Omron	1,630	657	11%	0.82
247	Porsche Automobil Holding	1,629	309	11%	0.78
248	Thermo Fisher Scientific	1,613	351	8%	0.75
249	Nestlé	1,601	990	12%	0.75
250	Michelin	1,584	624	13%	0.74
251	The Fraunhofer Society	1,582	643	10%	0.85
252	Dai Nippon Printing	1,577	259	5%	0.72
253	Newell Rubbermaid	1,573	122	3%	0.89
254	Sandvik AB	1,564	368	8%	0.76
255	Daikin Industries	1,561	533	8%	0.71
256	Rambus	1,538	311	11%	0.95
257	Koch Industries	1,538	345	8%	0.71
258	HTC	1,536	631	18%	0.92
259	Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings	1,532	482	7%	0.71
260	Solvay SA	1,525	661	8%	0.68
261	Volvo	1,520	478	10%	0.8
262	NCR	1,517	308	11%	0.82
263	JVC Kenwood Holdings	1,516	207	6%	0.72
264	Ciena Corp	1,515	98	8%	0.88
265	JP Morgan Chase	1,515	285	6%	1.25
266	Lexmark International	1,514	202	7%	0.72
267	BAE Systems	1,511	438	11%	0.83
268	Rockwell Collins	1,504	25	6%	0.93
269	Stryker Corp	1,497	444	10%	1.15
270	Stats ChipPac	1,495	285	7%	0.92
271	Harris Corp	1,493	173	8%	0.88
272	Shimano	1,486	275	11%	0.72
273	TRW Automotive Holdings	1,486	252	5%	0.79
274	Korea Advanced Institute of Science And Technology	1,484	895	13%	0.82
275	Adidas	1,476	258	10%	1.05
276	Nintendo	1,473	440	10%	0.94
277	Asahi Glass Co	1,464	761	10%	0.72
278	Finisar Corporation	1,461	77	3%	0.74
279	Takeda Pharmaceutical	1,460	368	5%	0.7
280	AbbVie	1,453	414	13%	0.75
281	Cummins	1,451	364	14%	0.86
282	Kohler	1,450	128	20%	0.82
283	Kobe Steel	1,443	580	13%	0.73
284	Rovi	1,439	614	11%	1.02
285	Fuji Electric	1,438	521	15%	0.8
286	Pioneer	1,434	295	1%	0.73
287	Agilent Technologies	1,433	238	2%	0.8
288	Advantest	1,432	254	4%	0.72
289	Unilever	1,428	326	5%	0.68
290	Pfizer	1,414	230	2%	0.77
291	Atmel Corporation	1,412	271	8%	0.81
292	Council of Scientific and Industrial Research	1,408	367	7%	0.64
293	Hitachi Metals	1,407	510	10%	0.76
294	Johnson Controls	1,403	575	11%	0.89
295	Colgate-Palmolive	1,401	376	12%	0.78
296	Zimmer Biomet Holdings	1,401	256	6%	1.19
297	AstraZeneca	1,397	441	4%	0.73
298	Techtronic Industries	1,395	231	9%	0.85
299	Reckitt Benckiser Group	1,379	172	7%	0.75
300	Callaway Golf	1,378	56	3%	0.99
301	Red Hat	1,374	532	13%	0.98
302	SC Johnson & Son	1,373	109	6%	0.84
303	Conversant Intellectual Property Management	1,370	97	6%	0.82
304	Allergan	1,361	662	12%	0.76
305	Arm Holdings	1,360	265	9%	0.86
306	US Army	1,346	206	10%	0.82
307	Milton Roy	1,335	671	22%	0.83
308	Tetra Laval Group	1,334	314	9%	0.7
309	Nidec Corp	1,331	315	10%	0.79
310	Cook Group Incorporated	1,327	672	11%	1.02
311	Walt Disney	1,316	473	18%	0.95
312	Foxlink Image Technology Co	1,315	213	10%	0.89
313	Dover Corp	1,310	251	9%	0.8
314	Koninklijke DSM	1,307	811	10%	0.74
315	Toyoda Gosei Co	1,299	216	7%	0.89
316	Takata Corp	1,298	162	4%	0.83
317	CR Bard	1,296	297	7%	1.09
318	Mitsui Chemicals	1,290	271	6%	0.69
319	Johns Hopkins University	1,283	663	13%	0.81
320	Total SA	1,253	600	10%	0.74
321	MicroChip Technology	1,253	205	9%	0.86
322	Fiat Chrysler Automobiles	3,410	295	6%	0.78
323	Biomet	1,236	444	15%	1.13
324	Swatch Group	1,232	251	15%	0.72
325	Baxter International	1,231	293	7%	0.97
326	Jarden	1,226	143	5%	0.78
327	Autoliv	1,222	146	6%	0.86
328	NTN Corp	1,221	309	8%	0.73
329	The University of Michigan	1,211	461	10%	0.89
330	Inventec Corp	1,198	443	5%	0.77
331	Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp	1,195	189	7%	0.85
332	Accenture	1,188	343	9%	1.13
333	Parker Hannifin Corp	1,188	242	7%	0.8
334	PPG Industries	1,177	294	7%	0.76
335	Weatherford Technology	1,175	227	9%	0.94
336	Ingersoll-Rand	1,170	361	14%	0.78
337	Pitney Bowes	1,169	57	1%	0.73
338	Dow Corning	1,162	333	10%	0.7
339	NSK LTD	1,161	138	7%	0.7
340	Harman International Industries	1,157	300	11%	0.87
341	Pepsico	1,152	210	7%	0.72
342	Air Liquide	1,150	562	9%	0.72
343	Unisys	1,148	270	16%	0.88
344	Acacia Research	1,147	70	4%	1.22
345	CenturyLink	1,143	175	10%	1
346	Reynolds Group Holdings	1,130	134	4%	0.79
347	Realtek Semiconductor Corp	1,123	173	7%	0.78
348	Amgen	1,120	325	6%	0.74
349	Toray Industries	1,118	689	16%	0.78
350	Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co (CSOT)	1,117	1,294	114%	0.92
351	National Oilwell	1,115	278	9%	0.86
352	ASM International	1,115	168	7%	0.83
353	IP Bridge	1,114	28	2%	0.8
354	US National Aeronautics and Space Administration	1,108	118	7%	0.84
355	Battelle Memorial Institute	1,105	317	7%	0.87
356	NGK Spark Plug	1,103	270	11%	0.76
357	Cirrus Logic	1,097	140	13%	0.95
358	Kawasaki Heavy Industries	1,090	336	15%	0.79
359	Trimble Navigation	1,089	171	12%	0.93
360	PerkinElmer	1,082	103	4%	0.92
361	Uni Charm	1,070	419	10%	0.8
362	Alps Electric Co	1,070	227	4%	0.74
363	Arris Group	1,068	260	12%	0.95
364	Intersil	1,062	131	4%	0.85
365	Showa Denko	1,060	419	6%	0.7
366	L-3 Communications Holdings	1,045	110	4%	0.84
367	International Rectifier	1,042	148	7%	0.87
368	Unwired Planet	1,039	82	4%	0.98
369	Terumo	1,038	544	14%	0.89
370	Air Products & Chemicals	1,038	203	7%	0.78
371	Textron	1,035	340	17%	0.81
372	LinkedIn	1,035	327	17%	0.91
373	Hamamatsu Photonics	1,031	254	9%	0.73
374	CA Technologies	1,028	261	10%	1.06
375	Bombardier	1,024	143	8%	0.76
376	Lear	1,022	195	4%	0.9
377	JX Holdings	1,020	559	13%	0.7
378	Ibiden	1,015	306	7%	0.82
379	CSR	1,010	56	3%	0.91
380	Hubbell	1,008	100	11%	0.86
381	Skyworks Solutions	1,008	174	11%	0.9
382	Dongbu Engineering & Construction Co	1,006	181	3%	0.61
383	Silicon Laboratories	1,004	133	9%	0.91

Source: MDB Capital Group LLCPowered by PatentVest

The above list is a ranking of each company’s grants. The company data is a normalised list of public and private patent holders, aggregated by hand with all publicly available subsidiary information. The grant data includes all US patents granted and in force, including utility, design and plant patents. Data is sourced directly from the USPTO assignments database and is aggregated for name variations and subsidiary data. Patents that have expired, are not maintained or have been withdrawn are excluded from this count.

Table 2. Top 20 by CAGR

Company	Grants	Apps	Three-year app CAGR	Tech Score
Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co	1,117	1294	114%	0.92
Adobe Systems	2,682	869	52%	1.03
Amazon	3,761	727	36%	1.12
NVIDIA	2,858	1,066	27%	0.9
Huawei Technologies	5,036	4,324	26%	0.9
Hyundai Motor	3,643	2,773	26%	0.84
ZTE Corp	1,652	1,731	26%	0.93
Facebook	2,234	1,023	25%	1.02
Wistron Corp	1,694	889	25%	0.9
Bank of America	1,960	1,266	24%	0.9
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing	11,399	2,873	22%	0.83
Lg Chemical	2,106	1,234	22%	0.79
Milton Roy	1,335	671	22%	0.83
NetApp	1,881	340	21%	1.07
Samsung Electro-Mechanics	2,671	3,389	20%	0.83
Kohler	1,450	128	20%	0.82
Apple	13,236	4,366	19%	1.03
Ford Motor	8,595	2,828	19%	0.86
Nike	3,977	843	19%	0.94
Verizon Communications	4,804	1,313	18%	1.01

Source: MDB Capital Group LLCPowered by PatentVest®

Table 3. Top 20 by Tech Score

Company	Grants	Apps	Three-year app CAGR	Tech score
JP Morgan Chase	1,515	285	6%	1.25
Acacia Research	1,147	70	4%	1.22
Zimmer Holdings	1,401	256	6%	1.19
Medtronic	9,142	2,178	6%	1.15
Stryker	1,497	444	10%	1.15
Symantec	3,036	115	7%	1.15
Accenture	1,188	343	9%	1.13
Amazon	3,761	727	36%	1.12
Covidien	5,827	2,381	13%	1.09
CR Bard	1,296	297	7%	1.09
Cree	1,668	489	15%	1.08
NetApp	1,881	340	21%	1.07
Nuance Communications	1,869	309	9%	1.06
International Game Technology	3,088	452	8%	1.05
Adidas	1,476	258	10%	1.05
Johnson & Johnson	11,293	3,006	8%	1.03
EMC Corp	4,532	167	6%	1.03
Apple	13,236	4,366	19%	1.03
St Jude Medical	3,210	831	11%	1.03
Adobe Systems	2,682	869	52%	1.03

Source: MDB Capital Group LLC Powered by PatentVest®

Action plan

The US Patent 1,000 provides actionable intelligence for the purposes of:

patent portfolio benchmarking;
comparisons across companies and industries;
assessments of innovative activity over time; and
indications of patent portfolio positioning and impact.

The list is valuable because of the important new information it provides to investors, companies and policy makers. Much like an investment index, this information provides a unique view into the companies listed and the industries they represent.

For investors

Depending on the stage of a corporation’s development, intellectual property may be a primary value driver. This list provides insight as to whether a company’s portfolio has been growing and the impact that those assets appear to be having within their technology verticals.

For companies

The US Patent 1,000 enables portfolio benchmarking and deeper analysis of IP strategy within and across industry verticals.

For policymakers

Out of 150,000-plus entities holding at least one granted, in-force US patent, 383 companies own portfolios of over 1,000 assets, representing over 57% of the US total. The top 100 patent holders own over one-third of all US patent assets. Throughout the list, various strategic models exist, each of which is important to enabling commerce and technology development.

Michael Chernoff is chief IP officer at MDB Capital Group

www.mdb.com

This data does not rank patent portfolio values outright, although some of these metrics can be used as secondary indicators of innovation. The opinions presented in this article are not intended to be, nor should they be construed as, legal or investment advice. A company’s inclusion in this article is not to be construed as an investment recommendation for such company’s securities.