IBM has set the world record on the number of patents granted in one year with more than 8,000 in 2016.
International Business Machines Corp. had a total of 8,088 patents won last year. That figure puts the average at 22 patents received each day.
This is hardly surprising, noted Hot Hardware, as the "Big Blue" has lorded over the list for 24 straight years now. Because of this feat, IBM holds the distinction of having the most patents among U.S.-based tech companies.
Leading the pack is artificial intelligence.
IBM has been aggressive in "surpass[ing] the human brain with computing technology", as CNET puts it. As a result, more than 2,700 of the 8,088 the multinational tech company' patents involved artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Cognitive computing was actually the top patent-getter for IBM this year. More than 1,600 of its patents revolved around cloud computing. One particular patent has caught the eyes of many. It involves a tech that identifies hotspots in a cloud computing environment pro-actively. This innovation will help IT administrators pinpoint where problems such as resource constraint may likely happen. It will help prevent performance issues and make it easier to fix them when problems do arise.
Samsung was granted 5,518 patents earning the second spot. It was followed by Canon with 3,665 and Qualcomm with 2,897 patents. Google rounded out the top 5 spots with 2,835 granted patents.
The next in the list were Intel with 2,784, LG Electronics with 2,428 and Microsoft with 2,398 patents. At the ninth spot was Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. with 2,288 and not far behind was Sony with 2,181 to close out the top ten. Apple just missed the top ten with 2,102 patents.
The number of patents approved in 2016 was 10 percent higher than the year before with a grand total of 3014, 126 patents, according to IFI Claims.
