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More suprising to me is Canon @ #3 and MSFT @ #6. Is there really that much going on in the optics space right now?

And MSFT with 2600+ patents, I'd have to imagine a lot of it is software (with some hardware maybe around Kinect and out of MSR)

edit: quick link to source - http://ificlaims.com/index.php?page=misc_top_50_2012

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research

MSFT is not surprising at all. If anything I would have expected them to be higher.

The number of patents these 10 companies have filed for does not necessarily correlate well with the quality of their patents.

Perhaps, but we'll still have to fight them all in court, right? So, they can trivially slap down a startup with litigation threats if they so choose?

Canon makes medical equipment. E.g. http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/healthcare/products/digital_ra...

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