Semiconductors is the highest patenting industry of the seventeen Patent Scorecard tracked by The Patent Board and accounts for 14.7% of all active U.S. utility patents issued this past year. The average patents per semiconductor company per year are 105 and is the third highest of all industries. The top 10 semiconductor companies account for almost 40% of the patents in the industry. There have been 22 new companies added to the Semiconductor Patent Scorecard this past year bringing the volume of companies to 223. The Semiconductors industry had a slight increase in patenting of 5% over last year, with SanDisk Corporation having the largest increase among the top 10 at 57%. Seven of the top 10 companies are headquartered in the United States, while two are from Japan and one is from Korea. Overall, the top three countries represented by companies in this Patent Scorecard are the United States, Japan and Taiwan with a company share of 57, 18 and 12% respectively; however Korea has a higher share of the patents than Taiwan, accounting for 9% of all the U.S. patents issued to companies in this scorecard this past year.

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