Semiconductors, VR, 5G, AI led new patent grants last year

Semiconductor technology was the most popular field for new tech inventions in 2023, according to new data analyzed by IP management platform Anaqua.

The firm crunched data related to nearly 350,000 patents the US Patent and Trademark Office granted last year, finding that virtual reality, 5G, and AI also led the way as topics for new tech developments.

Looking deeper into the development of AI applications, Anaqua found that most of the granted patents focused on “machine learning models, general neural network development, neural networks combination technology, neural networks for image and video recognition, and neural network training using backpropagation processes,” according to the firm.

IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon ranked among the top companies that received AI-related patents, the report said.

“AI patenting continues to be strong, and now we’re seeing much more nuanced, sophisticated types of AI technology being patented in the US,” Shayne Phillips, director of analytics solutions for Anaqua’s AcclaimIP platform, said in a statement to Tech Brew. “The data shows new filings related to combining multiple neural networks together for even more powerful insights, and backpropagation network training, where AI is being used to train even newer AI models.”

Of the tech companies Anaqua tracked, Samsung scored the most new patents overall, securing more than 10,000 grants on technologies ranging from digital advertising to semiconductor manufacturing.

The other top patent grantees lagged quite a bit behind by volume: IBM secured about 4,000 new patents, while Qualcomm earned about 3,800 grants. Rounding out the top five innovators, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company nailed down about 3,400 new patents, and LG Corp secured about 3,300 grants.