Earlier today, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) announced the release of its 30th annual list of the top 300 organizations receiving U.S. patents.  Patent Docs Readers may recall that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stopped releasing its annual list of top patent recipients in 2006 in order to "discourag[e] any perception that we believe more is better."

The IPO compiled its list by counting the number of utility patents granted during 2012 that listed an organization or a subsidiary as the owner on the printed patent.  The IPO noted that if an assignment to an organization or its subsidiary was recorded after the patent was printed, the patent was not counted, and further, that patents that were granted to two or more organizations jointly were attributed to the organization listed first on the patent.  The IPO also noted that 253,155 patents were issued in 2012, which was an increase from the 224,505 patents that issued in 2011.

Falling out of the Top 15 in 2012 were Hewlett-Packard Co. and AT&T Corp., which dropped to 16th and 18th, respectively.

As in past years, Patent Docs used the IPO's list of top patent holders to compile a list of the top "life sciences" companies and organizations receiving U.S. patents in 2012.  In the past six years, the number of life sciences companies and organizations making the list has gone from 51 in 2006 to 47 in 2007, 43 in 2008, 47 in 2009, 56 in 2010, 53 in 2011, and 50 last year.  Each organization's IPO top 300 ranking for 2012 is indicated in the "2012 IPO Rank" column; the IPO top 300 ranking for 2011 (if available) is indicated in the "2011 IPO Rank" column; and the change in number of patents from 2011 is indicated in "+/- from 2011."

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(Patent Docs)

(These latest Intellectual Property (IP) news and events presented here, are prepared and compiled by us, the World Patent & Trademark Law Office (WPTO),for your reference and information)