Hon Hai Precision Ranks 9th Place in US Patents in 2011.

　IFI CLAIMS®Patent Services recently announced its top-50 ranking of global companies awarded the most US patents in 2011 (2011 Top 50 US Patent Assignees).  According to IFI, the USPTO issued an all-time high 224,505 patents in 2011, which is 2% more patents than were issued in 2010. IBM, the world’s biggest computer-services provider, retains its patent crown by gaining a total of 6,180 patents in 2011 (up nearly 5%) and makes 2011 the 19th straight year IBM has led the world in earning US patents.  Samsung Electronics Co. trails in the second position with 4,894 US patents received in 2011 (a 8% growth), and Canon Inc. replaces Microsoft as the third by obtaining 2,821 US patents (a 11% increase).  Panasonic Corp. and Toshiba Corp. move up one spot to No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.  Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan ranks the ninth place by securing 1,514 US patents granted in 2011.  This is Hon Hai’s best performance ever and it is the only Taiwanese firm that hits the top-10 list of US patents.  Something to note is that Asian firms (from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea) account for 25 of the top 50 U.S. patent-grant recipients and capture 8 of the top 10 slots in the 2011 ranking.  (2012.01)

/CCS