Technology Innovation
I've always thought it was an admirable quality for a company to have a lot of patents. I think it shows a dedication to research and development along with an implicit, corporate-wide belief in providing value to customers and shareholders for the long-term. While there have been recent stories of patent-hoarding by companies that don't actually produce anything, here's a list of top patent-holding companies in the US that should be recognized and praised for their work.
| Rank In US | Company | Number of Patents | Rank in World |
| 1 | IBM | 3277 | 1 |
| 2 | Hewlett-Packard | 1780 | 4 |
| 3 | Micron Technology | 1761 | 5 |
| 4 | Intel | 1604 | 7 |
| 5 | General Electric | 978 | 14 |
| 6 | Texas Instruments | 915 | 16 |
| 7 | Advanced Micro Devices | 803 | 20 |
| 8 | Eastman Kodak | 714 | 25 |
| 9 | Sun Microsystems | 679 | 27 |
| 10 | Agilent Technologies | 651 | 28 |
