Tech companies are quick to patent their innovations even if they have no intention of bringing them to market at any point in the near future. Patenting the innovations gives them peace of mind. They protect their intellectual property while trying to prevent competitors from encroaching into their space.
Major tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and others register thousands of patents in the United States every year. However, they're not leading the pack. The latest data shows that IBM has registered the highest number of patents so far this year. Samsung sits in second place.
IBM has registered 5,797 patents in 2017 so far. Samsung is in second place with 4,143 patent registrations. This means that the company has registered 19.5 patents daily on average from January 1 through August 1 2017.
IBM also leads tech companies in the total number of patents awarded since 2010 with 53,925. Samsung is again found in second place with 44,301 patent registrations since 2010.
We often get to see what Samsung has been cooking up when its patents get registered. However, just because it patents a new technology doesn't mean it has any intention of bringing it to market.
We've seen countless patents detailing very cool technologies that Samsung hasn't developed for consumers yet. Whether or not the company is going to use every single one of its countless patents is another matter altogether.
