According to an R&D World analysis of major technology companies, the largest tech companies continue to maintain a commanding lead in patent generation, with the profiled companies producing more than 35,000 patents in 2023. This lead widened in 2024, with the 14 tech firms generating patents at 2.8x the rate of the automotive companies profiles and 4.2x that of the aerospace firms. Samsung, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Apple collectively had more than 19,600 USPTO patents granted in 2023.
The semiconductor industry showed strong momentum, too, with TSMC increasing its USPTO patent output by 22% from 3,027 in 2022 to 3,690 in 2023, while Micron Technology grew from 1,960 to 2,334 patents over the same period. This contrasts sharply with traditional aerospace and defense contractors, where Boeing’s patent output declined from 1,381 in 2019 to 820 in 2023, and Lockheed Martin’s dropped from 160 to 83 patents over the same period.
Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, government and university research institutions continue to see higher publication volumes. For instance, Harvard University produced about 33,600 research papers in 2023, Stanford generated 21,100, and MIT published more than10,00 papers. In comparison, even the most academically active tech companies showed more modest outputs — Google (via Alphabet) published about 3,100 papers, Microsoft produced roughly 1,000, and Apple released fewer than 200 papers in 2023 based on counts gathered form SCOPUS and OpenAlex. National laboratories also maintained robust output, with Oak Ridge National Laboratory producing 4,400 publications and Argonne National Laboratory generating more than 3,200 papers in 2023 in the analysis.
In the infographic below, which features an image of a semiconductor research lab at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the beginning, you can learn more about recent trends in patents and publication trends across a variety of high-tech sectors.
