Life Sciences Top 50

Yesterday, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) announced the release of its 30th annual list of the top 300 organizations receiving U.S. patents.  Patent Docs Readers may recall that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stopped releasing its annual list of top patent recipients in 2006 in order to "discourag[e] any perception that we believe more is better."

The IPO compiled its list by counting the number of utility patents granted during 2012 that listed an organization or a subsidiary as the owner on the printed patent.  The IPO noted that if an assignment to an organization or its subsidiary was recorded after the patent was printed, the patent was not counted, and further, that patents that were granted to two or more organizations jointly were attributed to the organization listed first on the patent.  The IPO also noted that 253,155 patents were issued in 2012, which was an increase from the 224,505 patents that issued in 2011.  The top fifteen companies on the IPO Top 300 are listed below (click on table to expand):

Falling out of the Top 15 in 2012 were Hewlett-Packard Co. and AT&T Corp., which dropped to 16th and 18th, respectively.

As in past years, Patent Docs used the IPO's list of top patent holders to compile a list of the top "life sciences" companies and organizations receiving U.S. patents in 2012.  In the past six years, the number of life sciences companies and organizations making the list has gone from 51 in 2006 to 47 in 2007, 43 in 2008, 47 in 2009, 56 in 2010, 53 in 2011, and 50 last year.  Each organization's IPO top 300 ranking for 2012 is indicated in the "2012 IPO Rank" column; the IPO top 300 ranking for 2011 (if available) is indicated in the "2011 IPO Rank" column; and the change in number of patents from 2011 is indicated in "+/- from 2011."  The Life Sciences Top 50 is listed below (click on table to expand):

Life sciences companies and organizations that failed to make the IPO top 300 in 2012 after making it in 2011 included Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. (#90 on the IPO top 300 for 2011), Japan Science and Technology Agency (256), University of Illinois (274), University of South Florida (281), Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (283), Genentech, Inc. (296), General Hospital Corp. (298), and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (299).  Becton, Dickinson and Co. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. returned to the Top 300 after a one year hiatus.

Please note that some of the companies and organizations listed above may be involved in work outside the life sciences sector, and therefore, a portion of the patents granted to these companies and organizations may be directed to other than life sciences-related inventions.  In addition, our list is a little inclusive in that we included medical device companies.

For additional information regarding this topic, please see:

• "Another Look at IPO Top 300 and Life Sciences Top 53," June 11, 2012
• "IPO Releases List of Top 300 Patent Holders for 2011," June 7, 2012
• "IPO Releases List of Top 300 Patent Holders for 2010," June 30, 2011
• "IPO Releases List of Top 300 Patent Holders for 2009," May 26, 2010
• "IPO Releases List of Top 300 Patent Holders for 2008," May 14, 2009
• "IPO Releases List of Top 300 Patent Holders," May 22, 2008
• "IPO Posts List of Top 300 Patent Holders," April 20, 2007