Toyota Tops Carmakers in 2018 Patents

Toyota received an automotive industry-best 2,500-plus patents in the U.S. last year, according to Harrity & Harrity LLC.

The Fairfax, Va.-based law firm’s inaugural Patent 300 report ranks IBM at the top of the list with 9,100 patents in 2018. Rounding out the top five are Samsung Electronics (8,000 patents), Canon (3,600), Intel (3,400) and Alphabet (2,600).

Ford had the second-most patents among carmakers with some 2,100, which ranked 16th on the list. Hyundai received 1,500 (22nd), General Motors had about 1,200 (34th) and Honda had 950 (43rd).

Porsche and Nissan each netted about 500 patents, while BMW had 190 and Mazda and Fiat Chrysler had less than 160. Several supplier companies also made the cut, including Bosch, Borgwarner, Bridgestone, Continental, Denso, Eaton, Magna, Marvell Technology, Schaeffler, Valeo, Yazaki and ZF. Uber had 118 patents last year to earn the final spot among the top 300 organizations.

As a group, the top 300 accounted for 54% of the more than 300,000 U.S. patents issued in 2018, Harrity says. More than two-thirds of the Patent 300 awards were for electrical, software or computer-related technologies.