IBM was granted 7,355 utility patents in 2015 according to US Patent Office data, more than any other company and its 23rd straight year at the top of the list
IBM wins more U.S. patents than anyone else in 2015 — depending on how you count … IBM received more U.S. patents …
Context & Ripple Effects
IBM's 2015 haul of 7,355 utility patents extends a run that was already old news a year earlier, when the WSJ noted Google and Apple climbing the rankings beneath an untouchable IBM at the top. The count has since become an annual scoreboard ritual: IBM hit a record 8,088 grants the following year (its 24th straight win), and by 2020 peaked at 9,130 with Samsung second at 6,415.
What makes this particular data point worth revisiting is how the story ends: in 2022 IBM's filings dropped 44% to 4,743, ceding the top spot to Samsung, and research chief Darío Gil said the company would stop pursuing numeric patent leadership altogether in favor of open innovation.
First-order effects
- IBM locks up its 23rd consecutive year as the top US patent recipient, reinforcing the annual ranking as a de facto R&D scoreboard where Samsung, Canon, and climbing Google and Apple are measured against it.
Second-order effects
- Rivals respond to the scoreboard itself: Samsung's sustained push eventually overtakes IBM by 2022 with 8,513 grants, showing that chasing the count became a competitive strategy in its own right.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward patent-volume leadership losing its status as a prestige metric — IBM's own retreat from numeric targets signals large tech firms shifting IP strategy from portfolio size toward open innovation and selective filing.
The trend: Annual USPTO rankings turned patent counts into a corporate KPI that IBM dominated for two decades before deliberately abandoning, marking the rise and fall of volume-based IP leadership.