US patent grants fall for first time since 2007

Last year was the first year since 2007 that the number of patents granted by the USPTO fell, according to a study of the top 50 US patent recipients by IFI Claims Patent Services.

The 298,407 utility patents granted for the calendar year was down just less than 1% compared to 2014. The top 50 patent assignees received 79,052 of these, or 26%, according to an analysis by IFI, which produces global patent databases and provides web services. These 50 organisations account for just 0.1% of all unique assignees.

Long-time patent leader IBM was also down slightly compared to 2014, but Samsungand Canon maintained their 2014 second and third place slots with small gains over the prior year.

Big gainers in 2015 included Qualcomm moving up three places to fourth, Google up three places to fifth, LG Electronics up one place to eighth, and Intel moving back into the top 10 at ninth.

IFI noted downward momentum for some including Sony(dropping to seventh from fourth), Panasonic(dropping to 18^th from 10th), and Microsoft(dropping to 10^th from fifth, and ending ahead of 11^th-placed Apple by only 18 patents). Apple’s counts decreased 3% over 2014 but its ranking was unchanged.

Twenty US-based companies appeared on the top 50 in 2015, the largest representation in more than a decade and up from 19 in 2014 and 18 in 2013. One of the most notable gainers among American companies in the Top 50 is Amazon Technologies, which moved up 24 places from 50th to 26th.

"After seven straight years of prolific patent growth, 2015 saw the first sign of de-acceleration,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO of IFI. “I wouldn’t suggest though that the patent train is losing momentum as many companies continue to crank out more patents than the previous year. That historic seven-year run was remarkable especially when you consider that IBM, Samsung and Canon each generate more than twice as many patents now as they did a decade ago.”

IFI noted that some of the falls in the list were not solely because they generated fewer patents but also because of where the patents are being parked. IFI treats subsidiaries that are distinct legal entities separately on the Top 50 ranking.

Larry Cady, senior analyst at IFI Claims Patent Services, explained: “Rather than keeping all corporate patents under a single registration, some companies are choosing to spread their portfolios across multiple entities. This is why we are seeing such dramatic movement this year with Microsoft and Panasonic, which all started assigning some patents to newly formed holding companies.”

Most of Microsoft’s 2015 patents were granted to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (1,956) while only 465 were granted to Microsoft Corp.  Most of Panasonic’s patents were granted to Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd (1,474), 458 were granted to Panasonic Intellectual Property Corp of America and only 300 were granted to Panasonic Corp.  Most of Google’s patents were granted to Google Inc (2,835) while 360 were granted to Google Technology Holdings LLC. 

Samsung, HP and AT&T have spread out their portfolios before. “In 2016 this trend will not doubt continue,” said IFI.