PRELIMINARY LIST OF TOP PATENTING ORGANIZATIONS *
                     Calendar Year 2000

This report presents a preliminary list of the organizations receiving
the most patents for invention (i.e., utility patents) during the 2000
calendar year.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) ranks first, receiving
2,886 utility patents, up five percent from its 1999 patent count. This
is the eighth consecutive year that IBM has received more utility
patents than any other non-Federal patenting organization.

For the year, the top ten patenting organizations consist of four U.S.
corporations, five Japanese corporations, and one corporation from the
Republic of Korea. One U.S. corporation has been added and one Japanese
corporation has been dropped from the list.

Second through fourth positions on the list remain unchanged for 2000.
NEC Corporation ranks second with 2,020 patents, Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
ranks third with 1,890 patents, and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is 
ranked fourth with 1,441 patents. 

Among other U.S. organizations, Lucent Technologies Inc. jumps from
ninth to fifth position with 1,411 patents, up 22 percent from the
previous year. Micron Technology, Inc. joins the list in seventh
position with 1,304 patents, up 40 percent from its count for the
previous year and Motorola, Inc. drops from seventh to ninth position
with a count of 1,196 patents for the year. Among Japanese
organizations, Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha falls off the list. 

The U.S. Government received 920 utility patents for the year. 
 
A complete preliminary listing of the top ten patenting organizations
receiving utility patents in 2000 is shown below. Patent receipts by
the U.S. Government are also displayed.



 (Preliminary *)                                     ( Final ) ( Final   )
2000    2000                                         ( Rank  ) (# Patents)
Rank  # Patents  Organization *                      (in 1999) ( in 1999 )
----  ---------  --------------------------          --------- -----

 1     2,886     International Business Machines Corp.     (1)  (2,756)
 2     2,020     NEC Corporation                           (2)  (1,842)
 3     1,890     Canon Kabushiki Kaisha                    (3)  (1,795)
 4     1,441     Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.             (4)  (1,545)
 5     1,411     Lucent Technologies Inc.                  (9)  (1,152)
 6     1,385     Sony Corporation                          (5)  (1,410)
 7     1,304     Micron Technology, Inc.                  (14)    (933)
 8     1,232     Toshiba Corporation                       (6)  (1,200)
 9     1,196     Motorola Inc.                             (7)  (1,192)
10     1,147     Fujitsu Limited                           (7)  (1,192)

         920     U.S. GOVERNMENT                                  (983)

* The  listed patent counts are preliminary counts which are subject to
  correction. The final listing of 2000 patent counts for the
  top patenting organizations should be available by early April.

Please Note:
Patent information presented reflects patent ownership at patent grant
and does not include ownership changes that occur after the patent
grant.  Where more than one assignee (owner) exists, patents are
attributed to the first-named assignee.

No attempt has been made to combine data based on subsidiary 
relationships.  However, where possible, spelling variations and 
variations based on name changes have been merged into a single name
(e.g., ESSO to EXXON).  While every effort is made to accurately
identify all organizational entities and to report data by a single 
organization name, achievement of a totally clean record is not 
expected, particularly in view of the many variations which occur in
corporate identifications.

------------------
Questions regarding this report should be directed to:
(address as of 5/2001)
             U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
             Information Products Division
             Technology Assessment and Forecast Branch
             PK3-Suite 441
             Washington, DC  20231

             tel (703) 306-2600
             FAX (703) 306-2737

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SOURCE:	U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Technology Assessment and Forecast database  (1-8-2001)