Top Thirty-Five Patent Assignees for 2007

According to IFI Patent Intelligence, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a total of 157,284 utility patents in 2007 — down 9.5 percent from 2006’s all-time high — at a time when the Patent Office is faced with a swelling backlog of patents pending. (The most recent USPTO annual report at www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/annual/2007 tallies the backlog to be 1,112,517 patent application pending for fiscal year 2007, or seven years of work at the current yearly issuance rate.)

Here's their list of the top 35 performers by number of patents issued in 2007:

1 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP 3148
2 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR 2725
3 CANON K K JP 1987
4 MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP 1941
5 INTEL CORP 1865
6 MICROSOFT CORP 1637
7 TOSHIBA CORP JP 1549
8 SONY CORP JP 1481
9 MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC 1476
10 HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO L P 1470**
11 HITACHI LTD JP 1397
12 FUJITSU LTD JP 1315
13 SEIKO EPSON CORP JP 1208
14 GENERAL ELECTRIC CO 914
15 INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE 856
16 DENSO CORP JP 803
17 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC 752
18 RICOH CO LTD JP 728
19 HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP 719
20 SIEMENS AG DE 700
21 LG ELECTRONICS INC KR 684
22 NOKIA AB OY FI 682
23 SHARP K K JP 667
24 FUJIFILM CORP JP 662
25 NEC CORP JP 617
26 SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC 610
27 CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC 582
28 BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE 569
29 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N V NL 560
30 HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC 539
31 BROADCOM CORP 533
32 SILVERBROOK RESEARCH PTY LTD AU 533
33 XEROX CORP 517
34 RENESAS TECHNOLOGY CORP JP 517
35 EASTMAN KODAK CO 493

** total includes 4 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co