Technology

Which Manufacturer is Winning the Smartphone Patent War?

Published

9 years ago

November 4, 2014

Jeff Desjardins

Which Smartphone Maker is Winning the Patent War?

Ever since the dawn of the smartphone era, hardware makers such as Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, LG, and Nokia have been engaged in a costly patents arms race. Every new patent on file furthers the case for the manufacturer’s legitimacy. Without any of this ammo, a manufacturer must capitulate against the crushing legal forces touted by the big boys.

The legal battles have costed manufacturers billions and there are no shortage of examples of companies posturing in the patent arena. In 2011, Google bought Motorola primarily because it valued the company’s patents at $5.5 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft made more money from patent licenses in 2013 than it did in licenses for its actual Windows Phone. A recent study estimated that for a $400 smartphone, the cost of royalties alone is more than $120 – at least equal to the value of the components themselves.

Steve Jobs even famously claimed that the Android itself was “grand theft” from Apple. “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40bn in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this,” Jobs said.

This infographic sums up the most recent stats in the smartphone patent war.

If you were to ask us who is winning? Probably the lawyers.

Original graphic from: Protect Your Bubble

Related Topics:apple smartphone patent war patent trolls samsung patent arms race microsoft

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Visualizing AI Patents by Country

See which countries have been granted the most AI patents each year, from 2012 to 2022.

Published

1 day ago

April 24, 2024

Marcus Lu

Visualizing AI Patents by Country

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This infographic shows the number of AI-related patents granted each year from 2010 to 2022 (latest data available). These figures come from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), accessed via Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report.

From this data, we can see that China first overtook the U.S. in 2013. Since then, the country has seen enormous growth in the number of AI patents granted each year.

Year	China	EU and UK	U.S.	RoW	Global Total
2010	307	137	984	571	1,999
2011	516	129	980	581	2,206
2012	926	112	950	660	2,648
2013	1,035	91	970	627	2,723
2014	1,278	97	1,078	667	3,120
2015	1,721	110	1,135	539	3,505
2016	1,621	128	1,298	714	3,761
2017	2,428	144	1,489	1,075	5,136
2018	4,741	155	1,674	1,574	8,144
2019	9,530	322	3,211	2,720	15,783
2020	13,071	406	5,441	4,455	23,373
2021	21,907	623	8,219	7,519	38,268
2022	35,315	1,173	12,077	13,699	62,264

In 2022, China was granted more patents than every other country combined.

While this suggests that the country is very active in researching the field of artificial intelligence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the farthest in terms of capability.

Key Facts About AI Patents

According to CSET, AI patents relate to mathematical relationships and algorithms, which are considered abstract ideas under patent law. They can also have different meaning, depending on where they are filed.

In the U.S., AI patenting is concentrated amongst large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. On the other hand, AI patenting in China is more distributed across government organizations, universities, and tech firms (e.g. Tencent).

In terms of focus area, China’s patents are typically related to computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers and systems to interpret visual data and inputs. Meanwhile America’s efforts are more evenly distributed across research fields.

Learn More About AI From Visual Capitalist

If you want to see more data visualizations on artificial intelligence, check out this graphic that shows which job departments will be impacted by AI the most.