Top 10 Companies For US Patents In 2008: IBM Again #1Top 10 Companies For US Patents In 2008: IBM Again #1

IBM was awarded 4,186 patents last year to lead the Top 10 list, marking the 16th straight year IBM has earned more US patents than any other company in the world. IBM's achievement - that's more than 11 patent granted every single day for the entire year - also marks the first time any organization has been awarded more than 4,000 US patents in a single year.The authors of Business Success Through Innovation also said that California came in first on the Top 10 list for states into which US patents were granted. It was not a close call: California organizations were granted more patents than states finishing second, third, fourth, and fifth combined.

Here's the list of 10 companies - and along the lines of what my colleague Rob Preston noted recently in his recent blockbuster column -- "When National IT Pride Devolves Into IT Stereotypes" -- about the huge numbers of US patents being awarded to Japanese companies, you'll see that six of 10 companies are the list are based in Japan: