Apple ended 2024 as the Fourth Highest Granted Patent Leader behind Samsung, TSMC and Google
IFI CLAIMS is a company that specializes in compiling and tracking patent data from various patent-issuing agencies around the world, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They provide valuable insights into patent activity through their annual rankings. Today they released the top companies who were granted patents in 2024.
After four years of decline, U.S. patent grants headed upward, rising 3.8% from calendar year 2023 to 324,043 and Samsung retained the top spot for the third year in a row with 6,377 granted patents and Apple in fourt place with 3,082 granted patent. Apple grew 21.53% and moved up 3 spots from last year as presented in the chart below.
(Click on Chart below to Greatly Enlarge)
Artificial Intelligence, particularly the generative form of it, dominated the technology scene again last year. And the quest to develop AI continued to hurtle the stock prices in 2024 of companies like Nvidia. Not surprisingly, Nvidia was the best performing stock of the Magnificent 7 last year, delivering an encore performance of its 2023 showing. Despite some calls that AI is overhyped, it’s a technology with staying power, evidenced by the semiconductor turf war currently being waged globally.
As for other trends last year, crypto made an impressive comeback, and even corners of the metaverse look to be awakening a bit after a deep sleep (though some continue to sound the death knell on that one). In the background, underpinning and protecting all of this revolutionary technology are plenty of inventions, filed in record numbers last year. Below are the highlights of IFI CLAIMS’ 2024 roundup of U.S. patents, a year that exhibited the continued growth in patent market share from companies in Asia and the enduring (but slowing) run of technologies that emphasize digital data processing and transmission.
Magnificent Patents
As a group, the Magnificent 7—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—returned another spectacular year of market returns.
How did they do with patent numbers last year? Just four of the bunch made our Top 50 ranking. Apple ranked the highest, coming in fourth place with 3,082 patents and moving up three rungs from last year. Google achieved the next highest ranking at number 10, with 2,054 patents—also moving up three places from the previous year. Microsoft and Amazon both made the top 20, though their standings are down from the previous year’s ranking.
Keeping Count by Country
It’s no surprise that U.S.-based companies claimed a little less than half of the more than 300,000 grants made in 2024. And Japan, as usual, remains in its solid second place with 43,364 patents granted, or 13% of the pie. China, meanwhile, leapfrogged past South Korea this year with 28,258 patents, winning back its third-place position from the previous year, while South Korea fell back to fourth place again, with 24,115 grants. On the European front, Germany is the top inventor country there with 14,044 grants.
(Click on Chart above to Enlarge)
U.S. Patents Around the World
Analyzing patent volumes by continent shows which regions in the world are accumulating the greatest number of protections. North America garnered the most grants with 148,686, but the continent decreased from the previous year, down 4%. Asia, on the other hand, continues its climb with 13% more patents than the previous year—despite Taiwan’s decline. Europe expanded, posting a 13.5% upturn over the previous year.