Top 10 Patent Recipients for 2018 Include IBM, Apple and Microsoft

IBM earned a record 9,100 U.S. patents in 2018, marking the 26th year in a row the Armonk, New York-based company has been the top recipient. Samsung was second with 5,850 patents while tech giants Apple and Microsoft also appeared in the top ten, according to a list compiled by research service IFI Claims. IBM's latest patent haul, which topped the 9,043 it received last year, includes a growing number of inventions related to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which many people see as critical technologies of the future. Google, which came in at number seven on last year's list, did not crack the top ten patent recipients for 2018. Meanwhile, Apple rose to ninth from eleventh.