With high-quality portfolios, newcomers are making waves
Image: Baris Simsek/Getty Images
Consumer-facing companies continue to rise against the conglomerates of the past, as household names keep being added to the Patent Power Scorecards. Over the years, we have charted the rise in the patent prowess of Google (No. 1 this year in Communication/Internet Services) and Apple (regaining the top spot this year in Electronics).Facebook takes its bow this year, debuting at No. 2 in the Communication/Internet Services scorecard. This is particularly impressive given Facebook’s relatively small patent output—just 46 U.S. patents granted in 2012, versus over a thousand for both Google and Research in Motion (nowBlackBerry)—and it reflects the high impact and general applicability of its patents.
The Patent Power Scorecards are based on quantitative benchmarking of the patent portfolios of more than 5000 leading commercial enterprises, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies worldwide. This benchmarking—carried out by us at 1790 Analytics, based in Haddonfield, N.J.—takes into account not only the size of organizations’ patent portfolios but also the quality of those portfolios, as reflected in characteristics such as growth, impact, originality, and general applicability. This enables smaller but higher quality portfolios such as Facebook’s to fare well against much larger portfolios. (See “Constructing the Patent Power Scorecards” for an explanation of our methodology and an explanation of the table headings.)
Patent Power 2013: Our annual roundup of which companies have the best high-tech patent portfolios.
And Facebook is far from the only newcomer using quality to punch above its portfolio’s weight. Within the same Communication/Internet Services category, there’s SeeReal Technologies (developer of holographic and 3-D display technology) at No. 5 and Cleversafe(provider of dispersed storage solutions) at No. 7. Looking at other scorecards shows DigitalOptics Corp.debuting at No. 1 in Semiconductor Manufacturing. This subsidiary ofTessera Technologies developsimaging systems for smartphones. Other interesting newcomers this year include Validity Sensors (No. 10 in Computer Peripherals and Storage) with its fingerprint sensor technology, VoiceBox Technologies (No. 13 in Computer Software) with its conversational speech recognition software, andCrestron Electronics (No. 6 in Computer Systems) with its home automation systems.
Moving beyond the electrotechnology space, the Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals scorecard has a number of interesting new names, includingVertex Pharmaceuticals (developer of cystic fibrosis and hepatitis C treatments) at No. 3; Enanta Pharmaceuticals (also a developer of hepatitis C treatments) at No. 4; and Isis Pharmaceuticals (developer of antisense RNA-based drugs) at No. 8.
Finally, there’s a noteworthy move in the Universities/Education/Training scorecard. Last year saw a Chinese university qualify for the scorecards for the first time, namely Tsinghua University at No. 15. This year, Tsinghua has continued to strengthen its patent portfolio, and it is ranked third in this year’s Universities/Education/Training scorecard, behind only theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California.
About the Author
Patrick Thomas and Anthony Breitzman are cofounders of 1790 Analytics. They specialize in technology assessment and intellectual property evaluation, publishing widely on the subjects and working with leading commercial, governmental, and financial organizations worldwide.
Each scorecard below is an interactive table containing the top 20 companies in each industry segment. By default, each scorecard displays the first 10 companies: to see more either adjust the number of companies display using the drop down menu, or click "next" at the bottom of the table. Tables can be ordered according to the contents of any column by clicking on the label of that column. For an explanation of the different label, read the sidebar, Constructing the Patent Power Scorecard."
AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE | AUTOMOTIVE AND PARTS | BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACEUTICALS | CHEMICALS
COMMUNICATION/INTERNET EQUIPMENT | COMMUNICATION/INTERNET SERVICES | COMPUTER PERIPHERALS AND STORAGE
COMPUTER SOFTWARE | COMPUTER SYSTEMS | CONGLOMERATES | ELECTRONICS | GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT/INSTRUMENTS | SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS | SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING
SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING | UNIVERSITIES/EDUCATION/TRAINING
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