Last week IFIClaims, a patent information company owned by Walters Kluwer Health , released its annual list of top U.S. patent assignees for 2007. According to the report, the USPTO issued 157,284 utility patents last year, a decline of about 10 percent from 2006. The top ten assignees (out of 35 listed) are:

1. IBM ….. 3,148
2. Samsung ….. 2,725
3. Canon ….. 1,987
4. Matsushita Elec. Ind. Co. ….. 1,941
5. Intel ….. 1,865
6. Microsoft ….. 1,637
7. Toshiba ….. 1,549
8. Sony ….. 1,481
9. Micron ….. 1,476
10. Hewlett-Packard ….. 1,470