IBM produced 7,355 U.S. patents in 2015, leading the way in intellectual property protection and development for the 23rd consecutive year. Leading the effort: More than 2,000 patents in cognitive and cloud computing.

However, IBM (NYSE: IBM) did secure fewer patents than the record 7,534 set in 2014.

The patent data was provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services.

Samsung and Canon remained second and third respectively, but IFI reported considerable shuffling in the top 10 and noted that Amazon is rising rapidly in the IP ranks.

“Big gainers include Qualcomm moving up 3 places to #4, Google up 3 places to the #5 slot, LG Electronics up 1 to #8 and Intel jumping back into the Top 10 at #9,” IFI noted.

“Toshiba increases counts slightly keeping hold of the #6 position.

“IFI analysis shows downward momentum for some including Sony (#7 down from #4), Panasonic Corp. (#18 down from #10), and Microsoft (#10 down from #5 besting #11 Apple by only 18 patents). Apple’s counts decreased 3% over 2014 but its ranking went unchanged.”

In the next tier, Amazon made the most noise.

“Amazon Makes Impressive Gains,” IFI’s reported noted.

“Arguably the most notable gainer among American companies in the Top 50 is Amazon Technologies, which moves up 24 places from #50 to #26.”

Also, the number of U.S. companies in the Top 50 rose to 20, up from 19 in 2014 and 18 in 2013.

AFI pointed out that the figure of 20 represents “America’s largest share of that list in more than a decade.”

Overall, some 298,407 patents granted in 2015. That total is down down slightly from 2014, IFI Claims reported.

Leading the patent parade for IBM were more than 2,000 patents in cognitive computing and for cloud computing applications.

“During IBM’s 23 years atop the patent list, the company’s inventors have received more than 88,000 U.S. patents. IBM’s investments in R&D continue to shape the future of computing through cognitive computing and the cloud platform that will help our clients drive transformation across multiple industries,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chairman and CEO in a statement. “IBM’s patent leadership demonstrates our unparalleled commitment to the fundamental R&D necessary to drive progress in business and society.”

Under Rometty, IBM has retooled and invested heavily in its Watson supercomputing efforts to further advance cognitive computing and in the cloud. One of IBM’s cloud data centers is located in RTP.

The top 10 companies were:

1 IBM, 7,355

2. Samsung, 5,072

3. Canon, 4,134

4. Qualcomm, 2,900

5. Google, 2,835

6. Toshiba, 2,627

7. Sony, 2,455

8. LG Electronics, 2,242

9. Intel, 2,048

10. Microsoft, 1,956

According to IBM, more than 8,500 IBMers in the U.S.  and 46 countries produced the patents. IBMers outside the U.S. secured more than 36 percent of the patent total.

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