Top 10 patent recipients for 2005 named

IBM remains the innovation leader among private-sector entities with nearly 3,000 patents issued last year, according to a list of the top 10 patent recipients of 2005 issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The list's second- and third-place companies, Canon Kabushiki Kaisha and Hewlett-Packard, both received around 1,800 patents in 2005. Matsushita Electric Industrial dropped from second place in 2004 to fourth place in 2005, receiving nearly 1,700 patents. Coming in fifth last year is Samsung Electronics with about 1,650 patents. The remaining companies on the list are Micron Technology with about 1,560 patents, Intel with about 1,550 patents, Hitachi with about 1,270 patents, Toshiba with about 1,260 patents, and Fujitsu with about 1,150 patents.