If we compare Sweden with the rest of Europe, the country is one of the most innovative countries but we are weak in doing business out of the patents for new products.
The sectors that account for the most patent applications are IT/Telecom (266) and Life Science (102) followed by Metrology (62) and electronics (39).
It is different in the United States where IBM topped the list for the 17th consecutive year. In 2009, IBM was approved the entire 4914 patents from the U.S. Patent Office. Samsung ended up on the second place with 3611 approved patent applications.
Patents are an important part because they reflect the investment of the company. It is not about applying for the most patents, but to manage the approved patent registrations in the best way.
The U.S. is the country that manages the applications the best, and in 2009 patent registrations in the U.S. increased by 6 percent (a total of 167,350).
Top 10 companies with the numbers of approved patent registrations in 2009
- International Business Machines Corp. 4914
- Samsung Electronics 3611
- Microsoft Corp. 2906
- Canon 2206
- Panasonic Corp. 1829
- Toshiba Corp. 1696
- Sony Corp. 1680
- Intel Corp. 1537
- Seiko Epson Corp. Jp 1330
- Hewlett-Packard Development Co. 1273
Cecilia Helland