Last week, patent data tracking firm IFI CLAIMS published its annual rankings of the Top 50 U.S. Patent Assignees and the Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies of 2024, providing a snapshot of the world’s most innovative companies and rapidly advancing tech sectors by analyzing U.S. patent grants totals over the last calendar year. Although U.S. patent grants increased overall last year, pointing to the strength of the domestic market, foreign economic rival China continued to make significant gains in acquiring U.S. patents.

Samsung Dominates Top 50 Rankings But Chinese Firms See Tremendous Growth

The 2024 patent rankings by IFI CLAIMS underscores how South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung Electronics has clearly supplanted American information tech giant IBM as the world’s top patenting firm. As IBM, the world leader in U.S. patent grants for nearly three decades, has slipped to eighth overall due to changes in patent filing strategies, Samsung holds both the #1 spot with 6,377 U.S. patents granted last year, nearly 2,400 patents more than second-place Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Samsung’s wholly-owned subsidiary Samsung Display itself placed seventh overall with 2,596 U.S. patents issued last year, helping power South Korea to a fourth-place ranking among nations of origin for 2024 top U.S. patent assignees.

Across the rest of 2024’s top ten patent assignees, TSMC moves into the runner-up position vacated by American semiconductor developer Qualcomm, which placed third by receiving 3,422 U.S. patent grants last year. While Qualcomm and IBM’s patent filings have receded, both consumer electronics firm Apple and Internet services giant Google advanced in the rankings, Apple to fourth place with 3,082 U.S. patents and Google to tenth place with 2,054 patents. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 was Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in fifth place (3,046 patents), South Korean tech conglomerate LG Electronics in sixth place (2,768 patents), and Japanese optical equipment developer Canon in ninth place (2,329 patents).

When looking at nations of origin for 2024’s top 50 U.S. patent grantees, U.S. companies earned the highest total of U.S. patents with 143,382 patents granted in 2024. However, foreign countries combined to earn 56% of all U.S. patents issued last year, meaning more than half of all U.S. patents issued last year went to companies headquartered outside of the U.S. While Japan has a strong hold on second place with 43,364 U.S. patents last year, China was powered to third place thanks to strong showings from its domestic firms on the top 50 patent rankings, each of which saw double- or triple-digit percentage increases from 2023’s patent totals.

While U.S. patent grants to American companies may be down this year, IFI CLAIMS CEO Ron Kratz notes that current numbers are still at a high level, historically speaking, with 2024 totals for U.S. companies exceeding those of the next nine nations combined. “We think the increase in overall U.S. patent grants shows the intense global interest in IP protection in the U.S. market,” Kratz said, pointing out that U.S. grants overall increased by 3.8% this year after four straight years of decline.

Several Fastest Growing Tech Sectors Focus on Sustainability Innovations

Although AI has figured prominently in past IFI CLAIMS’ lists of fastest growing technologies, which look at published patent applications as a better indicator of current tech sector activity than patent grants, machine learning and related technologies are absent from this year’s edition. Instead, this year’s list, which like past years identifies tech sector growth rate based on a running five-year accumulation of patent applications, reflects strong R&D investments into sustainability advances such as electrolytic cells that create hydrogen for clean energy systems, and reclamation of waste materials.

The top fastest growing technology this year is operating or servicing electrolytic cells for energy production, which saw a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the survey period of 27.2%. These technologies enable the production of cells that better separate the hydrogen and oxygen end products of electrolysis. In second place was working up raw materials other than ores to produce non-ferrous metals, enjoying a 26.2% CAGR for a sector focusing on separation and salvage techniques for reclaiming metals from scrap. Recovery or working-up of waste materials placed third with a 26.1% CAGR, supporting the breakdown and reuse of rubber and plastics. In fourth place was working-up of proteins for foodstuffs, with technologies for the extraction of proteins from non-animal sources seeing a 22.6% CAGR in recent years. Cells or assemblies of cells, which encompasses the hardware components of electrolytic cells, saw a CAGR of 20.5% to rank fifth this year.

Image Source: Deposit Photos
Author: voronin-76
Image ID: 9149465