As the smartdevices patent war wages on, intellectual property continued to be a key weapon in the tech majors’ arsenal. There’s no surprise then that the United States Patent and Trademark Office saw a 13 percent increase in patents awarded in 2012. IFI CLAIMS, a patent analysis company from the United States who reported the 13 precent increase, also note that the 253,155 utility patents issued last year is the highest annual number to date.

The company reports that the top-50 ranking (see below) is almost completely companies working in electronics, computing and telecommunications. While polesitter IBM maintained the pole position for the 20th year consecutively, more interesting is where the smartdevice software and hardware manucaturers sit:

• Google shoved it’s way into the top-50 with 1151 successful patents; a 170 percent increase on their 2011 number, moving them from 65 to 21 on the list.
• Apple’s 68 percent increase brought their successful patents up to 1136 and their position up to 22 from 39.
• Samsung held second spot.
• Microsoft held their spot at number 6.
• Nokia slipped off the top-50, down to 52.

With no end in sight for much of the patent litigation, there’s a good chance this trend will continue into 2013.∗