Clarivate Analytics, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation and commercialise ideas, has announced its highly anticipated list of 2017 Top 100 Global Innovators. The annual report highlights the most successful organisations in the world that are active in innovation through research and development, protection of their IP and the achievement of commercial success. It also reinforces a prevailing trend among innovative businesses of prioritising investment in unique, enduring inventions - for which patents are successfully brought to market and enjoy greater global commercial potential.
Forty-five Asian companies appear on 2017 list, a 15% increase over 2016, with long-recognised organisations like Honda, Komatsu, Samsung and Toyota joined by newcomers Fuji Electric, Hon Hai and Nichia. North America runs second with 36 companies appearing on the list, where newcomers like Facebook, Molex and Western Digital join Apple, Abbott Laboratories, Boeing, Microsoft and others.
Asian organisations outperformed the rest of the Top 100 in all metrics during 2017, indicating that the region is producing higher quality innovation, seeking to commercialise its innovation globally and creating more impactful innovation than both the remaining Top 100 Global Innovators and organisations outside the Top 100.
Now in its seventh year, Top 100 Global Innovators tracks innovation based on patent data-driven analysis from Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI). The index provides editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data, and is trusted by more than 40 patent offices worldwide.
The metrics produced reveal a combined indicator score used to identify the world's most innovative organisations. The report's methodology examines the portfolio strength and quality of each organisation, assessing four key areas: patent volume: in order to be considered, an organisation must have had at least 100 inventions protected by a granted patent in the past five years; a high ratio of success in obtaining patent grants; the globalisation or international breadth of patent filings across Europe, China, Japan and the USA; influence of how a patent/invention is cited externally by other organisations.
The organisations in the 2017 Top 100 represent three continents and 11 different markets, with major innovation hubs Japan and the USA accounting for 75% of the list. Eighty-five of the 2017 Top 100 Global Innovators also appeared on the 2016 list, and six are new to the report.
Data further indicates that while patent filings by the Top 100 Global Innovators have increased at a slower pace than those outside the list, the Top 100 are more successful in bringing their innovations to market - the ultimate measure of success. Overall, the volume of global patent filings has increased by 11.9% during the last five years, compared to a 2.4% increase for the Top 100. However, the number of patents granted to the Top 100 in 2017 grew by 5.7% year-over-year, compared to a 3.4% increase for companies outside the Top 100.
After leading Asia from 2011-2013 and again in 2016, North America once again ceded the top spot to Asia in 2017. In the US, while Silicon Valley remains the epicenter of innovation, the Midwest gained on the Western US and outpaced the Eastern region. Chicago-based companies make up the majority of Midwestern innovators in the Top 100.
With Asia ascending back to the top spot in 2017, European representation in the Top 100 fell to 19 organisations in 2017, compared to 22 last year. France, Germany and Switzerland make up 75% of European Top 100 organisations, with the majority of those based in France. Still, all three of Europe's losses in 2017 came from French companies dropping off the list - research institutions IFP Energies Nouvelles, CNRS and automotive supplier Valeo.
The full report on the world's most innovative organisations are available at http://top100innovators.clarivate.com/.
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