Who is the strongest in chemical R&D? Thirty-three companies have made it onto the Global Top 250 Patent Holders list.

Release Date:

2020-01-22

The U.S. commercial patent database IFI Claims has released its latest patent report, listing the world’s 250 largest patent holders as of January 2, 2020 (IFI 250: Largest Global Patent Holders).

In terms of the number of patent families, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics ranks first worldwide with 76,638 patents, followed closely by IBM, Canon, General Electric, Microsoft, LG Electronics, Apple, Ford, Amazon, and Huawei.

A total of 10 Chinese companies and institutions made the list, ranked as follows: Hon Hai Precision (11th), Huawei (29th), TSMC (39th), BOE Technology (74th), Lenovo Group (82nd), TCL (99th), MediaTek (103rd), ZTE (108th), Tencent (206th), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (229th).

Data show that among the 50 companies with the highest number of patents, U.S. firms account for 49%, up from 46% in 2018. Meanwhile, Japanese companies make up 16%, South Korean firms about 7%, and Chinese companies 5%, surpassing Germany for the first time to rank fourth.

Last year, the number of patents granted to Chinese companies increased by nearly 35% year on year, with two firms ranking among the top 15: Huawei at No. 10 and BOE at No. 13.

Thirty-three oil and chemical companies made the Top 250 list, with BASF ranking highest at 45th place and holding 10,987 patents; Bayer ranked 51st, with 9,654 patents.