According to a new Capital on Tap report, Samsung is the most innovative technology company in the world. The South Korean chaebol applied for the staggering 13,024 patents in 2021, taking first place by some margin, and leaving Huawei to take second place with 9,739 new patent applications.
Now, looking at the table posted by Capital on Tap, Huawei appears first but there’s no conspiracy here. Samsung actually operates and files patents under two separate entities – Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display. When we combine the patents filed by both divisions (9,499 by Samsung Electronics and 3,524 by Samsung Display) we get the final score.
It’s also interesting to see LG getting into the top 5, despite the company’s decision to withdraw from the smartphone market (but hey, smartphones aren’t the only electronic gadget out there).
Chinese display manufacturer BOE Technologies is in third place making up one spot, which is not surprising at all, given that the company supplies major brands like Samsung with display panels (there’s a rumor that Apple is looking to tap into BOE’s displays for its iPhone lineup at some point).Qualcomm has gained 6 places and currently occupies fourth with 4,815 patent applications in 2021, while Chinese conglomerates Tencent and Baidu are in sixth and seventh places respectively. Intel and IBM make up the top 10, which Apple missed by just one place. The Cupertino company filed 2,925 patents this year and is currently occupying 11th place.
Other companies worth mentioning are Xiaomi in 18th place, Google in 22nd, and Sony in the distant 24th place, despite all the innovations we saw in the Xperia 1 III and 5 III phones this year, as well as the pro-oriented devices.
You can check out the full report, and see other interesting trends and pretty cool top 10 lists in different categories (virtual & augmented reality, 5G, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence & machine learning, cyber security, and more).
