An annual analysis of publicly available patent data from IP management firm Anaqua found that semiconductor technologies received the most granted patents in the US in 2023, the second year in a row that semiconductors have topped the list.
The report also found:
- Samsung Electronics led in most patents granted in 2023 with over 10,000 patents in areas including plural semiconductor manufacturing.
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company saw 3,442 patents granted (4th most patented company).
- While AI dominated conversation in 2023, it was only the 4th most patented tech field. VR and 5G followed semiconductors.
Anaqua, the leading innovation and intellectual property (IP) management technology provider, announced its annual analysis of USPTO data using its advanced AcclaimIP patent analytics software. The analysis found that patent grants grew nearly one-half of one percent to 348,774 in 2023, marking a slight increase compared to 347,408 patents in 2022 placing US grants above pre-2019 levels.
Most Innovative Companies
Samsung Electronics leads the most innovative companies list, calculated by the number of granted patents, with 10,043 US grants (an 8% increase from 2022) in technology areas like data indexing schemes, electronic advertising technology, electronics related to renewable energy generation, organic electric solid-state devices, and plural semiconductor manufacturing.
The other top five most innovative companies were IBM with 4,003 granted patents, Qualcomm with 3,852, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company with 3,442 and LG Corp with 3,319 granted patents.
Most Innovative Countries
US-based companies led all countries for the total number of granted US patents at 162,557, an 18% increase from 2022, with companies in the APAC region continuing to be well represented in the top five list of countries with US-granted patents. According to the data, Japan is in second place (40,960), followed by China (28,979) and South Korea (24,073). In fifth place is Germany, the leading European country, with 13,905 grants.
Top Innovation Areas
The top technology fields based on the most granted patents include semiconductor technology for the second year in a row, followed by virtual reality (VR), 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and software technology related to unauthorized user detection. The rest of the top ten list includes program control unit, medical related, wireless, chemicals and chemistry related (appearing for the first time in the top ten), and network security technologies.
In examining AI-related US grants, the top inventive areas include machine learning models, general neural network development, neural networks combination technology, neural networks for image and video recognition and neural network training using backpropagation processes. The top assignees who received US granted patents in AI in 2023 were IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Shayne Phillips, Director, Analytics Solutions, AcclaimIP, said, “Our annual patent report examining the USPTO’s data shows a resilience and a consistency amongst the inventive community and companies seeking to protect their innovations. The analysis points to continued global innovation despite economic uncertainty and volatility.”
“We are honored to support many of the most innovative companies across the globe develop and manage their intellectual property to make better, strategic decisions about their business,” said Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. “Our AcclaimIP solution helps customers search over 150 million patents to analyze intellectual property (IP) to determine patentability and assess the competitive patent landscape, ultimately to translate powerful patent analytics into business success.”
