PTO 98-1 / JANUARY 12, 1998 CONTACT Richard Maulsby /Lisa-Joy Zgorski (703) 305-8341 USPTO ANNOUNCES TOP PATENT EARNERS IBM AGAIN TOPS THE LIST ARLINGTON, VA -- The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the top patent recipients for the 1997 calendar year. The USPTO received over 210,000 patent applications in 1997 and issued over 120,000 patents. The following organizations received the most patents for inventions, i.e. utility patents. 1997 Rank 1997 Patents Organization 1996 Rank 1996 Patents 1 1,724 IBM 1 1,867 2 1,381 Canon 2 1,541 3 1,095 NEC Corporation 4 1,043 4 1,058 Motorola Inc 3 1,064 5 935 U.S. GOVERNMENT 7 923 6 903 Fujitsu Limited 9 869 903 Hitachi 5 963 8 892 Mitsubishi 6 934 9 862 Toshiba Corporation 8 914 10 859 Sony 10 855 11 795 Eastman Kodak Company 13 768 For the fifth straight year, IBM received more utility patents than any other non-Federal patenting organization. The top eleven patenting organizations consist of three U.S. corporations, seven Japanese corporations, and the U.S. government. Patent information presented reflects patent ownership at patent grant and does not include changes in ownership which occur after the patent grant. Where more than one assignee (owner)exists, patents are attributed to the first-named assignee.