The following is a list of the top ten recipients of patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2003:
  1. 3415 patents to IBM, headquartered in Armonk, New York
  2. 1992 patents to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, headquartered in Tokyo
  3. 1893 patents to Hitachi, Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo
  4. 1786 patents to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, headquartered in Kadoma, Japan
  5. 1759 patents to Hewlett-Packard, headquartered in Palo Alto, California
  6. 1707 patents to Micron Technology, headquartered in Boise, Idaho
  7. 1592 patents to Intel Corporation, headquartered in Santa Clara, California
  8. 1353 patents to Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Amsterdam
  9. 1313 patents to Samsung Electronics Co, headquartered in Daegu, Korea
  10. 1311 patents to Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo

In 2002:
  1. IBM
  2. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
  3. Micron Technology
  4. NEC Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo
  5. Hitachi, Ltd.
  6. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
  7. Sony Corporation
  8. General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut
  9. Hewlett-Packard
  10. Mitsubishi, headquartered in Tokyo

In 2001:
  1. IBM
  2. NEC Corporation
  3. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
  4. Micron Technology
  5. Samsung Electronics Co.
  6. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
  7. Sony Corporation
  8. Hitachi, Ltd.
  9. Mitsubishi
  10. Fujitsu, headquartered in Tokyo