AMD Ranks Fifth Among U.S. Companies in U.S. Patents Awarded; Company Earns More Than 1,000 U.S. Patents for 2nd Consecutive Year
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2002--AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced it ranked 14th in the world among companies receiving patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2001, and for the second consecutive year, fifth in patents earned among U.S.-based companies.
"For AMD to continue its upward trajectory, we must sustain our passion for constantly finding new and better ways to do things," said Bill Siegle, chief scientist at AMD. "Our business is driven by innovation, and the ultimate innovation index is patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."
For the fourth year in a row, AMD ranked among the top 25 companies in the number of new U.S. patents received. Numbers released earlier in January by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services show that AMD earned 1,090 patents last year, breaking the 1,000 patent barrier for the second consecutive year.
"Buyers of electronic devices often take improvements in performance for granted, and speak of `Moore's Law' as if it were a naturally occurring phenomenon," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64, a Saratoga, Calif.-based market research and consulting organization.
"In reality, it takes massive investments of financial and intellectual resources to move the industry forward. Patents serve as useful barometer to gauge the effectiveness of a company's efforts with regard to the innovation that our modern society requires and our economic system rewards."
"Our current patent portfolio is a roughly equal mix of process and manufacturing patents on the one hand, and product design patents on the other," said Siegle. "Not only are we very excited about the products going out our doors today, our research and development results show our continuing commitment to performance and productivity improvement as well."
For a complete list of the top 25 U.S. patent recipients for the past three years, refer to the chart below.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE:AMD).
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U.S. Patents 1999-2001 (source: IFIClaims)
1999
Company No. Patents
--------- -----------
1 IBM 2,789
2 NEC 1,853
3 Canon 1,800
4 Samsung 1,544
5 Sony 1,429
6 Fujitsu 1,231
7 Toshiba 1,225
8 Motorola 1,207
9 Lucent 1,156
10 Mitsubishi 1,089
11 Matsushita 1,065
12 Hitachi 1,020
13 Kodak 993
14 Micron 934
15 Philips 866
16 HP 855
17 AMD 825
-------------------------------------------
18 Intel 735
19 Siemens AG 731
20 GE 700
21 Xerox 671
22 Texas Inst 604
23 Sharp 566
24 Sun Microsys 565
25 Proctor & Gamble 551
2000
Company No. Patents
------- -----------
1 IBM 2,922
2 NEC 2,034
3 Canon 1,897
4 Samsung 1,442
5 Lucent 1,415
6 Sony 1,394
7 Micron 1,306
8 Toshiba 1,264
9 Motorola 1,203
10 Fujitsu 1,169
11 Matsushita 1,150
12 AMD 1,055
-------------------------------------------
13 Hitachi 1,046
14 Mitsubishi 1,037
15 Siemens AG 932
16 HP 904
17 Kodak 876
18 Philips 839
19 Intel 797
20 GE 790
21 Texas Inst 692
22 Sharp 619
23 Xerox 577
24 Bosch 550
25 Fuji Photo 549
2001
Company No. Patents
------- -----------
1 IBM 3,453
2 NEC 1,966
3 Canon 1,877
4 Micron 1,643
5 Samsung 1,451
6 Matsushita 1,447
7 Sony 1,392
8 Hitachi 1,283
9 Mitsubishi 1,210
10 Fujitsu 1,208
11 Toshiba 1,176
12 Lucent 1,119
13 GE 1,112
14 AMD 1,090
-------------------------------------------
15 HP 982
16 Philips 882
17 Siemens AG 817
18 Intel 811
19 Texas Inst 806
20 Motorola 785
21 Xerox 722
22 Kodak 719
23 Bosch 705
24 United Microelec 596
25 Honda 587 |
