LexisNexis names the global leaders accelerating patent advances in its “Innovation Momentum 2023: The Global Top 100” report

New York, Jan. 31, 2023: LexisNexis^® Legal & Professional, the leading provider of science-backed patent workflow and analytics technology, released its “Innovation Momentum 2023: The Top Global 100 report.” Now in its second edition, the annual report analyzes the change over two years of patent data to distinguish leading patent owners and chart the pace of change in intellectual property portfolios.

Innovation Momentum 2023, Top 100 innovators per industry sector

The Innovation Momentum report showcases the strategic insights and peer comparisons that advanced patent analytics can unlock. While the two industries that placed highest in the first edition, pharmaceuticals, and information technologies, maintained their positions, the report also illustrates how consumer behavior and policy changes are prompting new developments in sectors as diverse as tobacco, medical technologies, and semiconductors. In addition, the 27 new entries on this year’s Top 100 demonstrate constant evolution in the global innovation ecosystem.

“This year’s edition of the Innovation Momentum report shows that, even when faced with unprecedented challenges, the spirit of innovation can transform adversity into opportunity and setbacks into long-term success,” said Marco Richter, Head of Global Customer Success, LexisNexis^® Intellectual Property Solutions. “We congratulate each of the companies in the Top 100 and look forward to seeing how their innovations evolve.”

How to measure Innovation Momentum

Innovation Momentum builds on the Patent Asset Index, a unique patent evaluation methodology featured in the analytics platform LexisNexis^® PatentSight^®. The report’s authors evaluated nearly 11 million patent families according to two metrics: Technology Relevance, or the potential to lead to further inventions, and Market Coverage, the size of the global market a patent family protects. These calculations are combined to determine a patent family’s Competitive Impact, a measure of quality.

The report provides an unbiased measure of outperformance by recognizing patent owners with relatively small but high-quality portfolios, rewarding patent owners with well-maintained portfolios, and taking into account the differences between technology fields and markets. To make the Top 100, companies must own a portfolio with at least 10 active patent families and have increased their Technology Relevance over two years.

“Innovation leadership also means covering ground-breaking innovations early on and being agile with regard to the ideal timing and geographies of our patents,” adds Peter Berg, VP of Intellectual Property at Infineon Technologies, a semiconductor company within the Global Top 100. “Both can be captured by the PatentSight indices.”

Global trends spark new waves of innovation

The report highlights important recent developments with deep dives into three industries that serve as case studies for diversified and responsive innovation:

• The chemicals and materials industry’s higher placement this year reflects its role in providing the building blocks for other sectors. The two companies in this industry with the strongest patent portfolios demonstrate momentum in different ways; while LG Chem boasts a large overall portfolio size, BASF stands out for the high quality of its patents within a streamlined portfolio.
• Tobacco company entries dominate the consumer goods industry list. For businesses like Philip Morris International, innovation through products like the e-cigarette is a matter of survival as consumer habits and regulators increasingly move against traditional tobacco use.
• All medical technology companies in the Top 100 increased their patent portfolio size to address the needs of a rapidly aging world. Medical device company Medtronic—which owns the report’s largest and strongest portfolio in the medical technologies category —is developing technologies that enable everything from diabetes monitoring to less-invasive surgery.

Pharmaceuticals and information technologies lead the way in fast-paced innovation

Five industries—pharmaceuticals, information technologies, chemicals and materials, electronics, and semiconductors—lead the Top 100 as businesses reckon with emerging challenges:

• The pharmaceuticals industry’s top placement reflects the long tail of COVID-19 and the aging global population creating demand for new therapies.
• The information technologies industry comes in second place, with a diverse set of companies building on the digital adoption spurred by the pandemic.
• Semiconductor industry innovation follows pent-up demand for its technologies, including from companies addressing global issues like climate change, such as the chips used in electric vehicles.

Regional differences matter, and new entrants bring fresh perspectives

The report shows innovations in some fields are concentrated in certain countries or regions. For example, the U.S. is represented in the Top 100 more than any other country, with a particularly strong showing in information technologies and medical technologies. In contrast, China and Korea continue to build upon their traditional strengths in electronics. For its part, the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region contribute the most owners in the chemicals and materials and pharmaceuticals industries.

Country-level analysis shows that Japan increased its number of innovators in the Top 100 by more than any other country, up to 6 entries compared to 1 in last year’s edition. China recorded the largest decline, moving from 18 entries to 13.

In total, this year’s list features 27 new entrants from various regions and sectors, a testament to the diversity of today’s innovation landscape. This includes Sweden’s Välinge Innovation, which stands out for having the highest average patent quality in the chemicals and materials category and for its business model based on licensing its hardwood flooring technology to manufacturers.

The Top 100 only includes companies, but academic and public research institutions are also recognized in the report, representing the U.S., China, France, Germany, and South Korea.

To download the report and learn more about the dynamics of today’s technology development and the patent owners outperforming their peers in the potential to lead to further inventions, visit www.lexisnexisip.com/innovation-report-2023.

About LexisNexis^® Legal & Professional

LexisNexis^® Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that helps customers increase productivity, improve decision-making and outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis^® and Nexis^® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 10,500 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About LexisNexis^® Intellectual Property Solutions

LexisNexis^® Intellectual Property Solutions bring clarity to innovation for businesses worldwide. We enable innovators to accomplish more by helping them make informed decisions, be more productive, comply with regulations and ultimately achieve a competitive advantage for their business. LexisNexis^® Intellectual Property Solutions’ suite of workflow and analytics solutions (LexisNexis® IP Data Direct, LexisNexis^® IPlytics, LexisNexis PatentAdvisor^®, LexisNexis PatentOptimizer^®, LexisNexis^® PatentSight^®, and LexisNexis TotalPatent One^®) enable companies to be more efficient and effective at bringing meaningful innovations to the world. We are proud to directly support and serve these innovators in their endeavors to better humankind.

Media contacts: Jessica Morel, CMO, LexisNexis® Intellectual Property Solutions, [email protected]; Sarah Nowak, Account Manager, The Bulleit Group, [email protected]