Innovation might not be synonymous with patents, but patents are how you protect innovation in today’s business world. So it’s always interesting to see who’s winning the patent wars …
Summarizing my latest Forbes post:
IBM still leads the S&P 100 in active patents, but the fastest growth is coming from surprising places — especially finance. IFI Claims’ 2025 patent report shows IBM atop the list with 37,407 active patent families, even as the company intentionally shifts away from volume toward deeper innovation. Meanwhile, Apple, Qualcomm, Nike, Amazon, and RTX posted the largest year-over-year gains among the major patent holders, with Qualcomm and Amazon seeing double-digit jumps.
But the real story is percentage growth. Companies that historically weren’t patent powerhouses — BlackRock, Starbucks, JPMorgan, UnitedHealth, Capital One — are now leading the pack with the biggest relative increases. The financial sector in particular has become one of the fastest-growing in patent activity as banks evolve into AI, cybersecurity, and data-infrastructure companies. Machine learning and AI now dominate Capital One and Bank of America’s filings, and sit in JPMorgan’s top five.
Patent growth is also becoming a competitive moat, especially against the wave of fintech startups that have exploded in recent years. Newer S&P 100 entrants like Palantir, ServiceNow, and Uber are rapidly expanding their portfolios too. And at the other end of the spectrum? Only one S&P 100 company has zero patents: Simon Property Group.