Press Release Archives
THOMSON REUTERS ANALYSIS OF 2008 WORLD PATENT ACTIVITY FINDS U.S. MARKET INFUSED WITH ASIAN INNOVATIONS
Philadelphia, PA, USA — March 24, 2009 — The IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters released the results of its 2008 Global Innovation Study today, analyzing the leading innovators by key region over the last year. The study, which tracked the top ten innovators in China, Europe, Japan, Korea and the U.S. on the basis of total number of unique inventions issued in granted patents and published patent applications, found that 70 percent of top ten innovators in the U.S. were non-U.S. companies. In contrast, home region innovators dominate the Asian and European top ten lists
Among the top innovators in the U.S. were — in order — Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea); International Business Machines Corp. (U.S.); Microsoft (U.S.); Toshiba (Japan); Canon (Japan); Fujitsu Ltd. (Japan); Sony Corp. (Japan); General Electric Co. (U.S.); Seiko Epson Corp. (Japan); and Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd. (Taiwan). Among the Asian firms who have developed a large innovation footprint in the U.S., Samsung, Toshiba, Canon, Sony Corp. and Seiko Epson also rank among the top ten innovators in their home regions. The American companies among the U.S. top ten do not rank in the top ten of any other regions in this study.
In Europe, just one of the top ten innovators was from outside Europe: Samsung Electronics Co. LTD (Korea), which was the third most innovative company there last year. The remaining nine of the top ten are all European businesses. No European companies were in the top ten in the U.S. or Asia.
All the Asian regions studied show that Asian companies see the importance of their native markets in terms of innovation reinvestment. The top ten innovators in Japan, China and Korea are Japanese, Chinese and Korean organizations, respectively.
The following charts show the breakout of the top ten innovators in each region. The data was compiled using the Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) database.
DATA: TOP PATENTING COMPANIES
Table 1: United States Top Innovators 2008
| # of records | COMPANY | COUNTRY OF ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|
| 7404 | SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD | Korea |
| 6576 | INT BUSINESS MACHINES CORP | United States |
| 2931 | MICROSOFT CORP | United States |
| 2421 | TOSHIBA KK | Japan |
| 2019 | CANON KK | Japan |
| 1751 | FUJITSU LTD | Japan |
| 1691 | SONY CORP | Japan |
| 1523 | GENERAL ELECTRIC CO | United States |
| 1291 | SEIKO EPSON CORP | Japan |
| 1166 | HON HAI PRECISION IND CO LTD | Taiwan |
Table 2: Europe Top Innovators 2008
(Europe comprises the European Patent Office, in addition to these specific countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.)| # of records | COMPANY | REGION OF ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|
| 2753 | SIEMENS AG | Europe |
| 2619 | BOSCH GMBH ROBERT | Europe |
| 1475 | SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD | Korea |
| 1250 | DAIMLER AG | Europe |
| 905 | RENAULT SAS | Europe |
| 775 | PEUGEOT CITROEN AUTOMOBILES SA | Europe |
| 616 | BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE AG | Europe |
| 607 | ZF FRIEDRICHSHAFEN AG | Europe |
| 602 | VOLKSWAGEN AG | Europe |
| 583 | SCHAEFFLER KG | Europe |
Table 3: Japan Top Innovators 2008
| # of records | COMPANY | COUNTRY OF ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|
| 8234 | MATSUSHITA DENKI SANGYO KK | Japan |
| 8061 | TOYOTA JIDOSHA KK | Japan |
| 6281 | TOSHIBA KK | Japan |
| 6242 | SEIKO EPSON CORP | Japan |
| 5156 | CANON KK | Japan |
| 4022 | SHARP KK | Japan |
| 3992 | MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP | Japan |
| 3657 | RICOH KK | Japan |
| 3398 | SONY CORP | Japan |
| 3203 | NEC CORP | Japan |
Table 4: China Top Innovators 2008
| # of records | COMPANY | COUNTRY OF ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|
| 3864 | ZTE COMMUNICATION CO LTD | China |
| 2849 | HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD | China |
| 1727 | UNIV ZHEJIANG | China |
| 1061 | ZHONGXING COMMUNICATION CO LTD SHENZHE | China |
| 967 | UNIV SHANGHAI JIAOTONG | China |
| 916 | UNIV QINGHUA | China |
| 657 | UNIV BEIJING AERONAUTICS & ASTRONAUTIC | China |
| 565 | BIYADI CO LTD | China |
| 551 | BYD CO LTD | China |
| 548 | UNIV DONGHUA | China |
Table 5: Korea Top Innovators 2008
| # of records | COMPANY | COUNTRY OF ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|
| 6253 | SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD | KR |
| 4205 | LG ELECTRONICS INC | KR |
| 2950 | HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD | KR |
| 2180 | HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR INC | KR |
| 2143 | LG DISPLAY CO LTD | KR |
| 1194 | DAEWOO ELECTRONICS CORP | KR |
| 1082 | SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD | KR |
| 745 | DONGBU ELECTRONICS CO LTD | KR |
| 736 | ELECTRONICS & TELECOM RES INST | KR |
| 572 | SAMSUNG ELECTRO-MECHANICS CO | KR |
About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. For more information, go to thomsonreuters.com.