Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to create computers and machines that learn, work, and react like humans. The possibilities are endless, as evidenced by expanding research and advancements in the field. More than 1.6 million scientific papers related to AI were published between 1960 and early 2018.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recently released its first report on technology trends in artificial intelligence. The report, “WIPO Technology Trends 2019: Artificial Intelligence,” includes a ranking of the global institutions that have filed the most patent applications for AI inventions, which often comprise several patents and are called a patent family. Of the top 20 organizations filing patent families, all but two are companies.

Twelve Japan-based companies are in the top 20 along with three U.S.-based companies, two from South Korea, two from Germany, and one from China. It is worth noting that of the top 20 universities and public research organizations that have filed for AI patents, 17 are based in China and the other three are in South Korea.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) researchers collected and analyzed patent data using the FAMPAT database. It is important to note that the WIPO does not publish exact figures for most of these organizations, so these totals are estimates based on the chart published in the “WIPO Technology Trends 2019: Artificial Intelligence” report when an exact figure was not provided. LAI patent families (or filings) can be further categorized as either AI techniques that use different core algorithmic approaches to implement AI functional applications, or the applications themselves. For each organization, we list the most common category of inventions filed for both applications and technique patent families.

Click here to see the 20 companies leading the A.I. revolution.
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