PATENTING BY ORGANIZATIONS Top Ten Companies Calendar Year 1992 This report, prepared from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) data base, shows the ten organizations which received the most utility patents during the 1992 CALENDAR YEAR. Patent information included in the report reflects patent ownership at patent grant and does not include changes in ownership which occur after the patent grant. Where more than one assignee 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 report data by a single organization name, achievement of a totally clean record is not expected, particularly in view of the variations which occur in many corporate identifications. In 1992, the ten organizations which obtained the most patents for inventions (i.e., utility patents) are corporations. They include six corporations from Japan and four from the United States. Four of the top five corporations are Japanese. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, ranked fifth in 1991 patent receipts, replaces Toshiba as the corporation receiving the most U.S. patents. General Electric Company, the top U.S. corporation, occupies the fifth position. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., a Japanese corporation, replaces U.S. Philips Corporation, a corporation from the Netherlands, in the top ten list for 1992. A complete listing of the top ten organizations receiving utility patents during 1992 is shown below. Rank (Rank in 1991) Organization # Patents in 1992 1 (5) Canon Kabushiki Kaisha 1,106 2 (1) Toshiba Corporation 1,020 3 (2) Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha 957 4 (3) Hitachi, Ltd. 951 5 (6) General Electric Company 937 6 (8) International Business Machines Corporation 842 7 (4) Eastman Kodak Company 775 8 (10) Motorola Inc. 658 9 (7) Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. 640 10 (15) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 608 ------------------ Questions regarding this report should be directed to: (address updated 4/96) U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Office of Electronic Information Products Technology Assessment and Forecast Program 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 Program (2-17-93)