IFI Patent Intelligence has just issued its annual compilation of the top US patent winners. IBM came top for the 13th straight year, but "saw a decline of more than 9% with 302 fewer patents than in 2004. At 2,972 patents, IBM's annual total falls below the 3,000 mark for the first time since 2001. Canon and Hewlett-Packard come in at number 2 and 3 respectively, but well below IBM," says the company.
While most companies are seeing a dip in patent activity there are several notable gainers including Microsoft, which is up more than 18 percent; Broadcom, up more than 38 percent; and Freescale Semiconductor, up a remarkable 88 percent over the 2004 counts.
Intel came seventh (1,551 patents), Sony 11th (1,149), Microsoft 18th (746), and Sun 23rd (654).
