By Tammy D'Amato and Scott Oldach of Patent Board™
TheConsumer Products Patent Scorecard represents companies involved in a wide range of products aimed towards consumers such as appliances, lawn and garden equipment, power tools, sporting equipment and apparel, office supplies, and toys and furniture. It also includes personal care products such as cosmetics, toiletries and baby supplies, as well as general household cleaning and paper products items.
Consumer Products is one of the lower utility patenting scorecards of the seventeen tracked and account for 1.9% of all active utility patents issued this past year. There is an average of 25 patents per company per year. The industry decreased in patenting over last year overall, however several companies had large increases propelling them into the top 10. adidas AG had the largest increase in patenting of 63% with fellow sports companies following suit with Nike Inc and Callaway Golf Co having significant increases at 49 and 43% respectively. Over half the companies in the top 10 are headquartered in the United States, two are Korean with France and Germany present as well. Consumer Products has a fair amount of multi-industry companies, where the greatest number of companies can also be viewed in the Industrial Components & Fixtures, Electronics & Instruments and Energy & Environmental...
