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Samsung is becoming part of our life; Samsung smartphones, Samsung television, Samsung monitor and Samsung refrigerator. It is not surprising this Korean company is a leader in high technology fields as it has the largest portfolio of active families of patents, according to ificlaims.com. This top position had been held by IBM, the American computer company, for almost 27 years. The ificlaims.com ranks 250 parent companies by active patents they own. The holdings of subsidiaries are included in the parent company’s holding. The top 100 companies are listed below.

Rank	Ultimate owner	Active families	Country
1	Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd	76,638	South Korea
2	International Business Machine Corp	37,304	US
3	Canon Inc	35,724	Japan
4	General Electric Co	30,010	US
5	Microsoft Corp	29,824	US
6	Robert Bosch	28,285	Germany
7	Panasonic Corp	27,298	Japan
8	Siemens	25,320	Germany
9	Intel Corp	24,628	US
10	LG Electronic Inc	23,043	South Korea
11	Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd	21,522	Taiwan
12	Qualcomm Inc	21,255	US
13	Sony Corp	21,167	Japan
14	Alphabet Inc	21,084	US
15	Toyota Motor Corp	20,814	Japan
16	Nokia Oyj	20,492	Finland
17	Fujifilm Holdings Corp	18,538	Japan
18	General Motors Co	17,778	US
19	Fujitsu Ltd	17,564	Japan
20	Hitachi Ltd	17,329	Japan
21	Ford Motor Co	16,942	US
22	United Technologies Corp	16,926	US
23	Volkswagen	16,470	Germany
24	Broadcom Inc	15,135	US
25	Honda Motor Co Ltd	15,072	Japan
26	Ericsson AB	14,878	Sweden
27	Apple Inc	14,849	US
28	Seiko Epson Corp	14,377	Japan
29	Huawei	14,315	China
30	Toshiba Corp	14,201	Japan
31	Honeywell International Inc	13,892	US
32	HP Inc	13,673	US
33	Ricoh Co Ltd	13,321	Japan
34	Dell Technologies Inc	13,313	US
35	Oracle Corp	13,254	US
36	Texas Instruments Inc	13,253	US
37	Denso Corp	13,120	Japan
38	Mitsubishi Electric Corp	13,062	Japan
39	TSMC Ltd	12,792	Taiwan
40	Philips NV	12,474	Netherlands
41	Medtronic PLC	12,400	US
42	Johnson and Johnson	12,226	US
43	Cisco Systems Inc	11,498	US
44	Continental AG	11,195	Germany
45	BASF SE	10,987	Germany
46	Boeing Co	10,897	US
47	Brother Industries Ltd	10,163	Japan
48	NEC Corp	10,152	Japan
49	Infineon Technologies AG	9,854	Germany
50	Airbus SE	9,741	France
51	Bayer AG	9,654	Germany
52	Amazon com Inc	9,455	US
53	GlobalFoundries Inc	9,426	US
54	BlackBerry Ltd	9,379	Canada
55	NXP Semiconductor BV	9,328	US/Netherlands
56	Xerox Holdings Corp	9,276	US
57	Procter and Gamble Co	8,950	US
58	Western Digital Corp	8,927	US
59	Valeo SA	8,913	France
60	Kyocera Corp	8,769	Japan
61	STMicroelectronics NV	8,630	Switzerland
62	LG Display Co Ltd	8,523	South Korea
63	Hyundai Moro Co	8,495	South Korea
64	Safran SA	8,332	France
65	3M Co	8,306	US
66	Hewlet Packard Enterprise Co	8,125	US
67	AT&T Inc	8,106	US
68	SK Hynix Inc	7,934	South Korea
69	Olympus Corp	7,924	Japan
70	Micron Technology Inc	7,488	US
71	National Research Council of Science and Technology	7,226	South Korea
72	Schlumberger Ltd	7,412	US
73	Konica Minolta Inc	7,366	Japan
74	BOE Technology Group Co Ltd	7,236	Japan
75	Renesas Electronics Corp	7,002	Japan
76	Corteva Inc	6,856	US
77	Nike Inc	6,787	US
78	Halliburton Co	6,638	US
79	Dow Inc	6,532	US
80	Boston Scientific Corp	6,519	US
81	Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd	6,466	Japan
82	Lenovo Group Ltd	6,379	China
83	Abbot Laboratories	6,265	US
84	CEA	6,120	France
85	Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd	6,116	Japan
86	Nissan Motor Co Ltd	6,096	Japan
87	Peugeot SA	6,046	France
88	TDK Corp	5,939	Japan
89	Roche Holdings AG	5,732	Switzerland
90	Verizon Communications Inc	5,656	US
91	Caterpillar Inc	5,622	US
92	Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Ltd	5,586	Japan
93	Thales SA	5,500	France
94	Kioxia Corp	5,285	Japan
95	Schaeffler AG	5,172	Germany
96	ZF Friedrichshafen AG	5,152	Germany
97	LOreal SA	5,116	France
98	Applied Materials Inc	5,079	US
99	TCL Corp	4,886	China
100	BMW AG	4,855	Germany

Patent filing since 1883

According to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 Report, from 1883 to 1963, the patent office of the US was the leading office for world filing. Application numbers in Japan and the US were stable until the early 1970s, when Japan began to see rapid growth—a pattern also observed for the US from the 1980s onward. Among the top five offices, Japan surpassed the US in 1968 and maintained the top position until 2005. Since the early 2000s, however, the number of applications filed in Japan has followed a downward trend. Both the EPO (European Patent Office) and South Korea have seen increases each year since the early 1980s, as has China since 1995. China surpassed the EPO and South Korea in 2010, Japan in 2010 and the US in 2011— and now receives the largest number of application worldwide. This also coincides with the emergence of Chinese companies to develop their own technologies, which is led by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

South Korea continues to file the highest number of patents per unit of GDP

Variations in patenting activity across countries reflect differences in their size and the structure of their economies. It is therefore informative to examine resident patent activity with regards to population, research and development, gross domestic product 9GDP) and other variables.

With 8,561 patent applications per unit of US$100 billion GDP, South Korea continued to file the largest number of patent applications. China (6,183) had the second largest ratio in 2018, followed by Japan (5,101), Germany (1,924) and Switzerland (1,831). However, over the past 11 years, the gap between South Korea and China has narrowed considerably, reflecting the strong growth in resident applications in China, with resident application per unit of GDP increasing from 1,854 in 2008 to 6,183 in 2018.

Focus areas of patent application by leading companies

According to the World Intellectual Property Indicator 2019 Report, the leading companies submitted patent applications from 2014 to 2016 were in technology fields as follows:

Rank	Company	Technology fields
1	Samsung	Telecommunication, digital communication, computer technology, semiconductors, optics and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
2	IBM	Digital communication, computer technology, IT method for management semiconductor and audio-visual technology
3	Canon	Audio-visual technology, computer technology, optics, telecommunication, semiconductors,  measurement and textile and paper machines
6	Robert Bosch	Transport, engines and turbines, machine tools, control, measurement, computer technology and digital communication
15	Toyota Motor Corp	Engines, pumps and turbines, mechanical elements transport, computer technology, semiconductors,  measurement and control
29	Huawei Technologies	Audio-visual technology, digital communication, telecommunication, computer technology and measurement and optics

Universities and PROs in Korea are active applicants of patent in 2014 to 2016 

The South Korean universities and PROs (public research organizations) are also active applicants of patents. The list of leading universities and PROs is shown below.

No	University or PRO	Technology fields
1	AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Japan	Semiconductor, measurement organic fine chemistry and biotechnology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
2	CEA, France	Computer technology, semiconductor thermal processes and apparatus and telecommunication
3	CNRS, France	Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy, computer technology, semiconductors, measurement analysis of biological materials, medical technology, organic fine chemistry, medical technology biotechnology and pharmaceuticals
4	DLR, Germany	Measurement, control, thermal processes and apparatus, handling, engines, pumps and turbines and transport
5	Fraunhofer, Germany	Computer technology, optics, digital communication, semiconductor, measurement, and machine tools
6	Harbin Institute of Technology (China)	Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy, computer technology, measurement and materials and metallurgy and environmental technology
7	KAIST, South Korea	Computer technology, digital communication telecommunication, measurement and optics
8	Korea Electronics and Telecomm	Telecommunication, digital communication, audio-visual technology computer technology and IT methods for management
9	MIT, US	Measurement, medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical computer technology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
10	Tokyo University, Japan	Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, measurement computer technology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
11	University of California, US	Medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, organic fine chemistry measurement, computer technology and electrical machinery,  apparatus and energy.
12	Zhejiang University, China	Measurement, biotechnology, computer technology materials and metallurgy and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy

Our comments

It is noted that South Korea’s leading companies such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG have made technological advances which are incorporated into their products. Their progress has been supported by universities and PROs.

China is also progressing up the technological ladder, which is led by Huawei. Taiwan has several companies which possess advanced semiconductor technologies, which is led by TSMC.

Our country, Malaysia, has not been successful in creating companies that are involved in advanced technology fields. Malaysian government’s effort to nurture domestic technology companies did not succeed due to a number of factors.

Malaysia is a leading producer of palm oil as well as a significant producer of oil and gas. Unlike Taiwan and South Korea, Malaysian companies are happy to be involved in oil palm plantations that generate regular profits through increased acreage.

The current turmoil in the oil industry and low prices of palm oil could spur a change in the economic development strategies through high technology industries involving digital and computer technologies. Looking at the advances made by Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan and China, the challenge of Malaysia to catch-up with these countries is very enormous.