Top 100 US patent owners 2016

The most valuable patents you can own are still those issued in the United States; but overall, the owners of the 100 largest portfolios of active US patents are rolling back their filing activity in the country

Three years ago we introduced our annual report, the US Patent 100, which identifies the entities that own the 100 largest portfolios of granted, in-force patents in the United States. Along with that list, we also include patent application growth rates, as well as a bibliometric measure of the rate that other companies are citing each portfolio, which we call Tech Score. Below, for the fourth year in a row, we update that data for 2015 and reflect on the changes.

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 in relation to their US patent holdings, 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.

Microsoft ousts Panasonic from the top five

Last year’s top five patent holders were Samsung, IBM, Canon, Panasonic and Sony. This changed in 2015, with four of the five companies continuing to dominate the US IP market. Within this group, Samsung widened its lead over the rest of the field, adding over 8,000 new US grants in 2015 compared to a range of -4,800 to 3,500 for the number two through number five players. In 2015, Microsoft (which now includes patents from Microsoft Technology Licensing and Microsoft Mobile) added over 3,500 grants, while Panasonic reduced its total grants by over 400. As a result, Microsoft and Panasonic swapped ranks on this year’s list. The three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for patent applications filed by this group dropped slightly to between the 7% and 11% range this year, indicating slightly decreasing patenting activity.

New entrants and drop-outs

Seven entities moved up the ladder and made it onto the US Patent 100 list during the last year: Avago Technologies (36), Kyocera (81), Merck (84), Huawei (86) Caterpillar (97), EMC Corp (98) and Halliburton (100). While most of these new entrants won their place as a result of sustained IP development, some are due to significant acquisitions, as noted below.

Avago Technologies joined this year’s list at number 36 – primarily due to its recent acquisition of LSI Corp, which was ranked number 55 last year. Avago’s acquisition of Broadcom (43) in January 2016 – which prompted it to rebrand itself as Broadcom Limited – is likely to catapult it into next year’s top 10. Merck’s recent acquisitions, most notably of Cubist, helped it to jump from number 133 last year to the 84 spot. As Merck continues to acquire new companies and their respective patent portfolios, we expect it to continue climbing the list.

The seven new organisations appearing on the 2015 list contributed to pushing the following six off: TE Connectivity, Daimler, Bayer, Rohm, Stanley Black & Decker and Exxon. LSI Corp fell off the top 100 list from a ranking of 55 last year as a result of the acquisition by Avago mentioned above.

Moving up and down top 100

There has been quite a bit of movement even among the companies appearing on both the 2014 and 2015 top 100 lists. This year’s cut-off to make the US Patent 100 was a minimum of 4,532 grants, which is 12.6% more than last year’s cut-off of 4,024. It is interesting – and a sign of increased M&A activity – that this was considerably higher than the 7.6% increase in the cut-off minimum that we saw last year.

As the US Patent 100 started with a higher number of minimum grants in 2014, some entities’ rate of growth of in-force patents was not high enough to keep them on this year’s list.

The top three entities which have climbed up the rankings all had significant acquisition activity in 2015. Of particular interest are the recent and planned acquisitions of some of the top entities with falling ranks this year. For example, Alcatel-Lucent was acquired by Nokia in 2016. Their combined patent portfolios would put Nokia among the top 10 entities on the US Patent 100 list. Also, Halliburton’s planned acquisition of Baker Hughes would propel Halliburton to the top half of the list. These recent and planned acquisitions might suggest that companies with large patent portfolios but declining patent growth relative to their peers represent potential acquisition opportunities.

Table 1. Top 10 risers

Item	Company	Grants	Apps	Three-year app CAGR	Tech Score	Rank 2015	Rank 2014	Change in ranking
1	Avago Technologies	11,732	927	7%	0.8	36	178	+142
2	GlobalFoundries	14,649	2,531	13%	0.86	23	90	+67
3	Merck & Co	5,080	1,402	6%	0.7	84	133	+49
4	Huawei	5,036	4,324	26%	0.9	86	113	+27
5	Kyocera	5,185	1,970	16%	0.84	81	101	+20
6	SAP	5,377	1,983	11%	0.92	77	86	+9
7	Airbus Group SE	5,312	1,657	10%	0.8	79	88	+9
8	Apple	13,236	4,366	19%	1.03	26	34	+8
9	EMC Corp	4,532	167	6%	1.03	98	106	+8
10	Qualcomm	16,877	7,678	17%	0.97	18	25	+7

Source: PatentVest, MDB Capital Group

Table 2. Top 10 fallers

Item	Company	Grants	Apps	Three-year app CAGR	Tech Score	Rank 2015	Rank 2014	Change in ranking
1	Alcatel-Lucent	12,199	2,246	6%	0.88	33	22	-11
2	Danaher	4,895	896	7%	0.76	92	81	-11
3	Advanced Micro Devices	5,152	698	11%	0.85	82	72	-10
4	Baker Hughes	5,004	1,335	10%	0.85	89	79	-10
5	Renesas Electronics	10,616	1,256	4%	0.76	44	35	-9
6	3M Co	8,497	1,946	7%	0.82	58	51	-7
7	Lockheed Martin	4,896	492	5%	0.86	91	84	-7
8	NEC	11,555	3,679	8%	0.83	37	31	-6
9	Procter & Gamble Co	8,611	1,905	8%	0.75	56	50	-6
10	Roche Holding	5,295	1,885	7%	0.76	80	74	-6

Source: PatentVest, MDB Capital Group

Table 3. Stand-out portfolios

Company	Grants	Apps	Three- year app CAGR	Tech Score
Alphabet	20,505	5,229	16%	1.01
Apple	13,236	4,366	19%	1.03
Caterpillar	4,539	1,809	17%	0.8
Ford	8,595	2,828	19%	0.86
Halliburton Company	4,400	1,636	16%	0.86
Huawei	5,036	4,324	26%	0.9
Marvell	6,189	344	17%	0.91
Qualcomm	16,877	7,678	17%	0.97
Taiwan Semiconductor	11,399	2,873	22%	0.83
Verizon Communications	4,804	1,313	18%	1.01

Best of the best

Our stand-out portfolios list highlights companies with assets which rank among the top across all of our three key PatentVest reported categories. Of the 150,000-plus entities that have been assigned at least one US patent, these 10 companies stand out in terms of grants (over 4,400), CAGR (16% and up) and Tech Score (0.80 and up), implying that they own the largest, fastest-growing and best-recognised patent portfolios in the world.

As was the case last year, we needed to slightly raise the bar again, as the minimum number of grants to be eligible was over 4,400 – compared to 4,200 last year. We increased the CAGR minimum to 16% and Tech Score to 0.80 and up. The number of companies eligible for this list actually increased by one this year to a total of 10. Since it is difficult – especially with large portfolios – to have both sustained growth (CAGR) and sustained impact (Tech Score) over time, the members of this list represent a commitment to excellence in the pursuit of differentiated IP assets.

When reviewing this year’s list, we note the absence of IBM, Ericsson, Covidien, SAP and BlackBerry – all companies that were on the stand-out list last year. In every case, the reason for missing the cut this year was due to a drop in CAGR. This does not mean that these companies have experienced a sudden degradation of the quality of their portfolio; rather, it simply reflects a sign of decreased patent filing over the last three years. For example, in the wake of Alice v CLS Bank, companies such as IBM and SAP may have reduced their patent filing growth while waiting for further clarity on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.

Table 4. The US Patent Elite – the 100 biggest active US patent portfolios

Item	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	8,272	8%	1.01
5	Sony	29,988	8,096	7%	0.85
6	Panasonic	29,478	7,126	7%	0.8
7	Intel	25,588	3,858	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	9,417	1,821	10%	0.95
49	STMicroelectronics	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	DuPont	8,987	2,231	7%	0.66
55	Semiconductor Energy Laboratory	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

US Patent 100

The US Patent 100 List is a ranking of each company’s patent 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. All of these numbers were current as of December 30 2015.

Action plan

The US Patent 100 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 100 enables portfolio benchmarking and deeper analysis of IP strategy within and across industry verticals.

For policy makers

Out of 150,000-plus entities holding at least one granted, in-force US patent, 385 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.

Michael B Chernoff is chief IP officer at MDB Capital Group, Dallas, Texas, United States

This data does not rank patent portfolio values outright, though 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.