The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) releases an annual report containing statistics on patent activity in the United States and in the top five patent offices around the world. The 2013 IP Record draws on sources such as the USPTO Performance and Accountability Report FY 2012, U.S. District Courts Annual Report 2012, WIPO Statistics Database, WIPO 2012 World Intellectual Property Indicators, and international patent offices to provide a broad overview of the global patent landscape. Using these sources and comparing annual statistics to those of past years’ reports, we can learn about trends in patent prosecution and litigation as well as in research, innovation and business development.

Top Patent Holders -

The IPO compiles a list of the year’s top utility patent owners and compares growth and decline in patent filings year-to-year. IBM held onto to its #1 ranking, securing 6,457 patents in FY 2012, a 5% increase from 2011. Samsung returned as the second-highest ranking company, securing 5,043 patent issuances in 2012, which is 175 more than it did in 2011 . The third spot was filled by Sony, the #8 company of 2011, which saw a 59.3% increase in patent issuances to reach a total of 3,608 secured utility patents in 2012. The top ten list of grantees was completed with Canon (3,307 patents), Panasonic (2,829), Hitachi (2,723), Microsoft (2,704), LG Electronics (2,682), Toshiba (2,601), and G.E. (2,040).