2017 Record Year for U.S. PatentsDecember 27, 2017

2017 saw the most patents issued in the history of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with over 320,000 patents granted. U.S. companies received 46% of these patents. Asian companies received 31% of the US patents, led by Japan. European companies acquired 15% of the patents.The remaining 8% were spread around the world.

IBM was the #1 patentee, with 9023 patents received in 2017, the most ever by one company, and the leader for the past 25 years. The top 10 patentees included Samsung Electronics, Canon, Intel, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Google, Microsoft, TSMC, and Samsung Display. The 50^th company on the patent grant list, Facebook, received 660 patents in 2017.

The fastest growing technologies, based on published patent applications, included e cigarettes, 3D printing, autonomous and hybrid vehicles, aerial drones, and machine learning.

For questions or more information, please email MVS Intellectual Property Attorney, Kirk M. Hartung or call our office at (515) 288-3667 and ask to speak with Kirk.