24/7 Wall St.’s review of the IFI list finds that producing the most patents does not ensure a successful business — frequently, it can mean the exact opposite. These are the top 10 biggest patent producing companies for 2011.

Most of the corporations in the top 10 are among the most worst performers across all industries. Share prices of seven of them plunged more than 40% in 2011. Five of the companies also lost money last year. Hitachi and Panasonic, both in the top 10, each lost more than $1 billion.

Read: The Most Innovative Companies in the World

Of the top 10 recipients, only three are particularly successful companies. For years, they have held the largest market share in highly profitable businesses. Korean giant Toshiba has been extremely successful in consumer electronics, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) dominates the operating system market and IBM (NYSE: IBM) is the market leader in enterprise computing. These companies have been able to rely on their constant revenue streams to support heavy investment in research and development.

Some incredibly successful tech companies are not even in the top 25. Companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which is only 39th on the list, have been extremely profitable as a result of a small number of highly successful products. Kodak (NYSE: EK) , meanwhile, is filing for bankruptcy, despite being one of the top patent recipients for years.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed top U.S. patent recipients for the past five years according to IFI’s annual reports. To illustrate how patent awards relate to company performance, we examined sales, profit and change in share price over the past five years for the top 10. We also examined how these companies compared within their industry and among the largest companies in the world based on the Forbes Global 2,000. Rankings for profit and sales are out of the largest 2,000 companies.

These are the 10 most innovative companies of the year.

The admission of the camera and medical equipment maker Olympus admitting large payouts around expensive mergers and hiding losses is just one more fly in the ointment after admitting that it was hiding investment losses.  The move is apparently close to $700 million in payments for financial advice and expensive acquisitions of companies not related to its core operations.  The news is almost certain to open its directors and accountants to criminal and civil suits.  A prior CEO was even fired for attempting to investigate a series of acquisitions made before his tenure.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) said that profit was down almost 20% and it has missed its earnings estimates and withdrawn guidance after Thailand flooding has stopped work at three plants.  Toyota ADRs hit a 52-week low in New York of $63,53 and shares are currently down 2.3% at $63.95.  These ADRs for Toyota are now close to challenging the $60 or so low of early 2009 during the panic.  Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) is down 1.8% at $29.97, but it is still about 6% above its 52-week low of $28.04.

We are looking at electronics and equipment exporters out of Japan as well.  Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) and Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) are both lower. Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) hit a new 52-week low of $17.26 and its ADR is close to challenging the lows of the panic of early 2009.  Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC) is down almost 3% at $9.02 also at a new 52-week low; but its shares are now lower than they were during the early 2009 panic selling.

Nomura Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NMR) is also following the slide as the accounting shenanigans are likely to ensnare Japanese securities companies due to widespread corporate governance and oversight issues in Japan.  The Japanese pound their securities firms when they worry about widespread corruption or widespread fraud as well.  Nomura ADRs are down about 9.5% at $3.32 in New York trading after hitting a 52-week low of $3.16 today and the ADR is lower than during the panic selling of early 2009.

The world is full of challenges as is, but when corporate officers are hellbent on mischief it just adds in yet one more pause for concern for the little investors.

JON C. OGG

8.50 PM The Nikkei recovered some of its lost ground in early trading as fears about a reactor explosion receded. The DJIA recovered most of its early losses and ended near the day’s high.

11 AM The DJIA has sold down by 1.7%. Toyota is off nearly 4%. Sony is off 2.7%. GE off 3.3%

7.05  US DJIA futures indicate an open down 300 points after an 11% drop in Tokyo. GE (NYSE: GE), a key supplier of reactor infrastructure is down 9% in the premarket

3.15: The Japanese Nikkei fell 11% on top of 6.2% yesterday  Tokyo Electric Power, owner of the troubled reactors dropped over 24%

Japan has gone from what was bad to far worse over the weekend after Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake that rocked Sendai and northeast Japan.  When we tallied up the damage on Friday and compared the damage to the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe earthquake, we figured that the small drops being seen in the Japanese markets were not near enough.  It turns out that the drop was not just not enough.  It was a gross miss entirely as the Nikkei 225 fell a whopping 6.18% to 9,620.49 in Monday trading.

10:50 AM EST UPDATE: EWJ down -7.8% at $9.97; JEQ down -5.8% at $5.90; JOF down by -6.8% at $8.47; and DXJ down -7.7% at $35.31.  In pre-market the iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE: EWJ) is down 7.9% at $9.95.  The Japan Equity Fund Inc. (NYSE: JEQ) has yet to trade but is indicated lower by about 5% on first look; the Japan Smaller Capitalization Fund Inc. (NYSE: JOF) is down 6.4% at $8.51.  The WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity (NYSE: DXJ) is down 3.25% at $37.00.  The fallout in individual ADR issues is enormous (priced updated as of 10:50 AM EST:

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) is down 7.4% at $30.98, was down 8.3% at $30.65 in pre-market.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) is down4.65% at $81.65, was down 6.5% at $80.10 in pre-market.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) is down 4.3% at $38.02, was down 5.9% at $39.74 in pre-market.

Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) is down 14.3% at $50.68, was down 12.9% at $51.48 in pre-market.

Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) is down 5.15% at $93.12, was down 8.2% at $90.13 in pre-market.

NTT DOCOMO, Inc. (NYSE: DCM) is down 4% at $17.55, same as pre-market coverage.

Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (NASDAQ: IIJI) is down 14.55% at $6.25, was down 10.8% at $6.52 in pre-market.

Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) is down 4.6% at $43.39, was down 6.3% at $45.52 in pre-market.

• Nuclear Power ambitions being killed globally
• Solar wins as nuclear dies
• An earthquake in San Francisco could cost us $390 billion

It is more than difficult to focus solely on the economic impact of tragedy when the death toll is rising and when there is a risk of a total meltdown of a nuclear reactor.  The consensus has now come around that this damage will definitely hit Japan’s GDP in the quarters ahead.

JON C. OGG

Update:

Preliminary estimates for the cost of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake are as high as $35 billion, and the effects of the tsunami could cause that to grow

According to research firm AIR Worldwide:

Given the enormity of the Mw9.1 earthquake that struck Japan less than two days ago, it is still in the very early aftermath of the event. Search and rescue efforts are still underway and damage assessment has only just begun, while considerable uncertainty still remains in the parameters that define the event.

Based on currently available information, AIR estimates that insured property losses from Friday’s earthquake will range between 1.2 trillion JPY to 2.8 trillion JPY. Using today’s exchange rate of 81.85 JPY to the dollar, this translates to a range of between 14.5 billion USD and 34.6 billion USD. To obtain this preliminary range, AIR simulated dozens of scenarios with varying magnitude (8.9 to 9.1), focal depth (15 km to 30 km) and rupture width (100 km to 150 km). The losses are most sensitive to rupture dimensions, and become extremely large if the modeled rupture is extended southward towards the Tokyo and Chiba prefectures, which contain a higher concentration of insured properties.

Oddly enough, public safety experts have begun to argue about whether that the Japanese seawalls have been built high enough over the last several years or whether the building code was stringent enough. Japan has spent tens of billions of dollars on seawalls to block tsunami waves since the Kobe quake.

Countries can hardly base public spending on 100 year events, and certainly not on 1,000 year ones. That may be tragic for victims, but earthquake public policy in a nation like Japan could cause a financial crisis comparable in its own way to the earthquake.

Douglas A. McIntyre

CoreBrand reviewed the top 100 hardest working brands for the final quarter of 2009.  Their researchers point out that “the food industry moves to the top of the list, reflecting the economy and the general improvement of consumer staples businesses. Hershey’s (HSY), Campbell Soup (CPB), and Kellogg (K) make it into the top 5.” On the other hand “troubled industries like financial services and auto manufacturers have seen dramatic decline.”

Harley-Davidson (HOG) is in the top 10 among the hardest working brands. Before rumors of a buy-out, the motorcycle firm’s stock languished at $25, down from $42 less than two years ago. Harley’s stock trades for a low 1.2 times sales. Also near the top of the list is crippled book retailer Barnes & Noble (BKS), which trades for .3 times sales. Blockbuster (BBI) is in the top 25, with a ratio of .1x sales. The firm said in its 10-K that it is at risk for filing Chapter 11.

Douglas A. McIntyre  douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list:

Each year, on a rolling basis, CoreBrand conducts 8,000 telephone interviews among business leaders to measure their perceptions of some of the world’s best corporate brands. Respondents are business decision-makers from the top 20% of U.S. businesses.

This senior business audience (VP level and above) represents the investment community, potential business partners, and business customers across 49 key industries. 400 respondents rate each company per year; 800 companies are measured each year. Our reports are updated on a quarterly basis to reflect any subtle changes.

CoreBrand collects financial performance data and communications investment information to understand the support behind and impact of these brands. These corporate brand strength ratings, as well as a company’s financial data are used in CoreBrand’s statistical model to determine the percentage of market capitalization that is directly derived from the corporate brand. Once that percentage is calculated, a dollar value is assigned to the corporate brand.

The percentage of market capitalization, attributable to the corporate brand. The percentage is then translated into a dollar value, based on the current market capitalization. The analysis is examined over time, to determine if the corporate brand is a growing or declining asset.

Douglas A. McIntyre

On US exchanges, bell-weather Baidu (BIDU) dropped 2.4%. China Mobile (CHL) fell 5%. China Petroleum (SNP) was off over 6%. Aluminum Corp of China (ACH) dropped 7%. HSBC (HBC) dropped almost 3%.

Among Japanese shares trading on US exchanges today, Sony (SNE) slipped 2%. Toyota (TM) was off 1.3%. Canon (CAJ) fell 1.6%. NTT Docomo (DCM) fell 1.2%.

If an early sell-off turns into a rout, look for Asia exchanges to drop 3% or more by the close.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Nikkei rose 2.5% to 15,500. Canon (CAJ) rose 4.5% to 5,600. Mitsubishi Motors rose 6.1% to 210. NEC (NIPNY) rose 3.4% to 522. Softbank rose 6.7% to 2640.

The Hang Seng was up 4.9% to 29,166. China Life (LFC) rose 6.6% to 45.75. China Mobile (CHL) rose 9.3% to 140.8. China Petroleum (SNP) rose 10.2% to 11.62.

The Shanghai Composite moved up 4.9% to 5,413.

Data from Reuters.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Nikkei rose .8% to 16,870. Canon (CAJ) rose 3.7% to 5960. NTT Data fell 5.8% to 493000. Softbank rose 5.2% to 2810. Sony (SNE) rose 3.4% to 5830.

The Hang Seng rose .8% to 31,616. China Petroleum (SNP) rose 8.6% to 12.66. China Unicom (CHU) fell 1.2% to 18.4.

The Shanghai Composite fell .7% to 5,914.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Nikkei rose 1.2% to 16,698. Canon (CAJ) rose 3% to 5890. Docomo (DCM) rose 5.8% to 163000. Sony (SNE) rose 3% to 5720.

The Hang Seng rose 3.4% to 31,449. China Netcom (CN) rose4 4.3% to 24.35. China Unicom (CHU) rose 8.2% to 18.42.

The Shanghai Composite rose 2.8% to 5,748.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Nikkiw fell .5% to 16,285. Canon (CAJ) fell 2.6% to 5580. Sony (SNE) fell 1.4% to 5110. Toyota (TM) fell 1.5% to 5950. Yahoo Japan fell 9% to 50900.

The Hang Seng rose 1% to 29,612. China Petroleum (SNP) fell 2.2% to 11.54. China Unicom (CHU) rose 1.9% to 16.16.

The Shanghai Composite fell 4.8% to 5,562.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre