MUNICH, Germany, Jan. 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IFI CLAIMS® Patent Services, a leading producer of global patent databases and innovative web services, today announced its first annual tabulation of the top 50 German patent recipients. The company today posted the official 2015 IFI CLAIMS German Top 50, a ranking of global companies and organizations that received the most utility patents from the German Patent Office in 2015. The company also released the 2015 IFI CLAIMS U.S. Top 50, its world-renown annual ranking of U.S. patent assignees.
In 2015, the German Patent Office granted a total of 14,801 utility patents, according to IFI CLAIMS. This is down 3% from 2014’s 15,323. The Top 50 companies received a total of 5,475 utility patents, or 37% of the total. This is a higher level of top-end concentration than in the U.S., where its Top 50 received 26% of the total utility grants.
GM Global Technology Operations leads the list with 436 utility grants in 2015. Siemens is second with 433 and Audi is third with 372. Other companies at the top of the ranking include Robert Bosch at #4 and Schaeffler Technologies at #5.
German companies dominate the German Top 50 with 33 German firms on the list. Japanese companies, led by Toyota (#8), have 8 positions. The U.S. has 5 companies in the Top 50, led by GM Global Operations. Korea and Sweden each have 2.
Automotive and auto supply companies dominate the German Top 50. In 2015, 14 of the Top 50 and 7 of the Top 10 companies are in or sell products related to the automotive industry including GM Global Technology Operations, Audi, Robert Bosch, Schaeffler Technologies, Volkswagen (#6), Denso (#7) and Toyota (#8).
German patents are assigned classification codes based on the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system. The top 3 CPC classifications among German patents are:
- Y10T – 714 grants. This classification covers metal-working and hardware including fasteners buckles. The leader in the class is GM Global Technology
- H01L – 650 grants. This classification covers semiconductors. The leader is Infineon.
- Y02T – 588 grants. This classification covers Climate Change Mitigation Strategies. The leader is GM Global Technologies.
While climate change related technology is a strong focus of German patents, Y02T is only the 18th most popular classification in the U.S.
In the U.S., electronics, computer and telecommunications companies dominate the rankings. IBM tops the list in the U.S., but is only #22 in Germany. Samsung Electronics is #2 in the U.S., but #57 in Germany. Apple, Google and Microsoft are all in the Top 10 in the U.S., but do not appear in the German Top 50 at all.
For more insight, visit 2015 IFI CLAIMS German Patent Trends.
One of the oldest and most trusted patent analysis firms, IFI CLAIMS is known throughout the world as the gold standard tabulator of U.S. and global patents. For more than 60 years, clients have turned to IFI to assist with patent analysis and more recently as a means of tracking “total portfolio ownership.” The company tracks patent data worldwide including U.S., Europe, Japan and China. For more information visit www.ificlaims.com.
CLAIMS® is a registered trademark of IFI CLAIMS Patent Services.
About IFI CLAIMS Patent Services/Fairview Research
Headquartered in the U.S. with a satellite office in Munich, Germany, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services is the preeminent producer of value-added patent databases and the innovative CLAIMS DIRECT platform and web service. From the most rigorous U.S. assignee name standardization process in the industry, to continual class code updates, and comprehensive indexing for chemical patents — IFI has built a solid reputation as a leader in patent databases worldwide including North America, Europe, and Asia. IFI CLAIMS is a division of Fairview Research (Madison, Conn., and Barcelona, Spain), a provider of data-enrichment technology and services for information retrieval and analysis. Founded in 2006, the company is skilled at making large-scale scientific and technical databases more searchable and helping to lower the cost of specialized research. For more information, visit www.ificlaims.com.