Patents are a reflection of how much a company invests in technologies that might make an impact on technologies of the future. Notably, one company has been on the top for the last 24 years in a row.

The Top Five

According to ITWorld, the top five companies with the most patents in 2016 are the same companies with the most patents in 2015. Topping the list at the No.1 slot for 24 consecutive years is IBM with 8,088 patents that have been granted to its investors in 2016.

Of the 8,088 patents awarded to IBM by the US Patent and Trademark Office, IFI Claims said that IBM garnered more than 2,700 patents that stemmed from artificial intelligence and cognitive computing work, reported c|net. This places IBM as having as much as 22 patent awards per day also placing the company to have received more than 8,000 U.S. patents in just one year.

Samsung ranked No. 2, the same spot it had last year, earning 5,518 patents, or roughly 15 patents awarded per day. Canon came in at No. 3 with 3,665, followed by Qualcomm at No.4 with 2,897 patents with Google at its heels with 2,835 patents to round out the top five.

The Next Five

Intel boosted its tally, increasing to 36 percent coming in at the No. 6 slot with 2,784 patents. LG Electronics took the No. 7 slot with 2,428 patents followed closely by Microsoft up two notches from last year to No. 8 with 2,398, a gain of 22% from 2015. The No. 9 slot was taken by TSMC with 2,288 patents, and rounding off the top 10 is Sony with 2,181 patents.

Apple stayed at No. 11, same as last year. However, it has increased its patent take by eight percent to 2,012 patents.

Interestingly, most of these patents do not necessarily mean we will see them in our devices, in reality, most of these patents will not see the light of day unless they are licensed for fees to other companies who might want to exploit these technologies. Most of the patents are there to make sure no other entity uses the idea or innovation the companies came up with first unless they want to figure in a patent infringement lawsuit.