Samsung Crams 4,894 Patents In Its Trolling Quiver In 2011

I guess it's a sign of the technology times when a report surfaces about the patents landed by the biggest tech firms in the world and the first thing that jumps to mind is how much patent trolling that will allow. Data from IFI Claims Patent Services has been published that shows which firms in the tech world landed the most patents in 2011. IBM held the top place spot for 2011, for the 19th year in a row.

IBM landed 6,180 patents over they year, a gain of 5% from 2010 when it had 5,896 patents the second place firm for landing patents was a bit of a surprise to me, Samsung took that spot with 4,894. I wonder how many of those will be used to beat Apple up in court. Canon took the third spot with 2,821 patents, Panasonic landed 2,559, and Toshiba had 2,483.

The firms I expected to be in the top of the list are surprisingly far down. Microsoft was in sixth spot with 2,311 patents, Sony took 7th with 2,286, and Seiko Epson had 1,533 patents. One of the larger makers of computers for a variety of firms – Hon Hai Precision – had 1,514 patents. Hitachi had 1,465 patents to round out the top ten. I really thought Intel would be way up the list, but the company was in 16th with 1,244 patents.

[via PC World]