IBM may not grab as many headlines as some other tech heavyweights, but that doesn’t mean the company has stopped innovating. In fact, 2015 marked the 23rd straight year in which IBM was awarded more patents in the United States than any other company. During those 23 years, IBM’s inventors received a total of 88,000 U.S. patents according to a company press release celebrating the achievement.
In 2015, IBM was granted 7,355 patents, more than 2,000 of them in the areas of cognitive computing and cloud solutions. Samsung came in second with 5,072 patents ahead of Canon with 4,134. The rest of the Top 10 is largely made up of the usual suspects with U.S. tech heavyweights such as Microsoft, Intel and Google alongside international electronics companies such as Sony, Toshiba and LG. One company that is surprisingly missing from the Top 10 is Apple. The iPhone maker, often considered one of the most innovative companies in the world, is ranked 11th just 18 patents short of making the Top 10.
This chart shows the ten companies that were awarded the most patents in the United States in 2015.
