Global: number of Microsoft patent filings by legal status 1999-2019

Microsoft filed a total of 1,969 patent families in 2018. This was only slightly less than in 2017. The company filed the biggest number of patent families in 2005. The timeline is based on data provided by PatentSight.
Microsoft is one of the biggest technology companies in the United States and has its headquarters in Richmond, Washington.

Number of Microsoft patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status

Filing Year	In force**	Pending	Inactive
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

In cooperation with

Release date

October 2020

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

October 1, 2020

Supplementary notes

* A patent family is defined as a group of patent documents all of which have the same set of priorities. I.e., it is a group of patent documents that protect the same invention across authorities.

** The 'In force' category covers patent families that have been granted and are active.

*** As it usually takes 18 months after first filing for a patent to get published, the data for the year 2019 is subject to change.

The owner of a patent includes all patents owned by a company and its subsidiaries (by at least 50%) based on comprehensive research on corporate structures, M&A, Spin-offs, company names changes, patent transactions. PatentSight also tracks former names of companies and subsidiaries, ongoing mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions of the past, reassignments, companies that have the same applicant, and transliterations by patent offices.

Citation formats