Patent leaders of 2008

Interesting post in rediff about top 10 patent leaders of 2008:

1. IBM: It has become the first company to earn more than 4,000 US patents in a single year. IBM plans to increase by 50 per cent the number of technical inventions it publishes annually instead of seeking patent protection. This will make these inventions freely available to others. IBM, which earns about $1 billion annually from Intellectual Property, owned 3,125 patents in 2007. It now has a total of 40,000 patents.
2. Samsung: ranked second in the world in terms of patents. It comes close to IBM with a total of 3,515 patents
3. Canon: with over two thousand patents comes third in the list. It received 2,114 patents in 2008. Canon has established itself as a technology leader as it continues to be among the top five companies awarded US patents every year.
4. Microsoft: ranked 4th in the list of patent leaders. It won 2,030 patents in 2008
   Microsoft has been criticised for applying for patents of pre-existing technologies.
5. Intel: with 1,776 patents is ranked fifth in 2008.
6. Panasonic: Matsushita now known as Panasonic Corp comes sixth in the list with 1,745 patents. Panasonic's vision is to build products 'in harmony with the environment'. Panasonic makes products that can be easily used by people with disabilities also.
7. Toshiba: Toshiba is ranked seventh with 1,609 patents.
8. Fujitsu: with 1,494 patents is ranked 8th in the list.
9. Sony: Sony is ranked 9th in the world top patent leaders' list. It received 1,485 patents in 2008. However, Sony expects biggest-ever operating loss of $2.9 billion as the global economic crisis has led to a fall in demand for televisions, cameras and video game consoles.
10. HP: Hewlett-Packard is ranked 10th in the list of top patent holders. HP received 1,424 patents in 2008.

Intersting to see one South Korean and four Japanese companies among the top 10 list. Its just matter of time before some Chinese and Indian companies will break through the list.