ITRI and MediaTek Named to the 2014 Top 100 Global Innovators List by Thomson Reuters

The IP & Science Business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s premier provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced the 2014 top 100 global innovators on November 6, 2014.  Asia overtook other regions for the first time this year with 46 companies appearing on the list.  Of Asia’s 46 entrants, 39 companies/organizations are based in Japan, 4 in South Korea, 2 in Taiwan, and 1 from China (Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.).  Taiwan has joined the ranks of top 100 innovators for two consecutive years.  This year, the state-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and MediaTek Inc. are named among the top 100 global innovators.

The region of North America followed Asia with 36 companies listed (down from 46 last year), of which 35 are based in the US, and the other in Canada.  Europe contributed 18 honorees; France accounted for 7 of Europe’s total, followed by Switzerland with 5, and Germany with 4.  It is noteworthy that Britain is absent from the innovation list again even though they have spent upmost efforts to drive innovation by legislation with respect to tax. 

The semiconductor and electronic components industry still took the lead in all industry sectors to be the most innovative industry with 21 representative companies on the 2014 list.  Computer hardware ranks as the second largest industry with 13 companies on the list, followed by the industrial sector with 8 companies and the automotive sector with 6.  In addition, the report found that notwithstanding the longer cycle time of research and development needed, the pharmaceutical sector continued to rise in the ranking for two consecutive years.  Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Roche have been remaining on the list steadily with their respective strong patent portfolio in the world. 

This year’s top 100 global innovators list presented to people the intense competition taking place in the smartphone arena, in which many of the major players in the smartphone patent wars appeared at the same time, including Apple Inc. Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Google Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd. 

Entering its fourth year, Thomson Reuters honored the 100 most innovative organizations globally according to four principle criteria:  a series of patent-related metrics; they are the overall patent volume, patent grant success rate, global reach of the portfolio, and patent influence as evidenced by citations.  (November 2014)
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