Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2020

Celebrating the world’s 100 most innovative organizations

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Innovators rise to new challenges

As the innovation ecosystem fragments, the number of competitors rises. Increasingly, innovators must add their knowledge to that of others as technologies become intertwined. The sheer scale of ideas out there escalates.

Staying at the top is getting harder.

Yet some innovators embrace and meet the challenge.

We have analyzed the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators™ from Clarivate Analytics for nine years. This year we honor longstanding and perennial winners and celebrate companies that have entered the Top 100 for the first time.

Making the cut: from 14,000 organizations to the top 100


Using editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data from Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Patent Citations Index, we track innovation based on four indicators: volume, influence, success and globalization.

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Who earned a spot on this year’s list?

The Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2020 come from three continents and 14 countries/regions, but just two countries make up 71% of the list. This year, 6 innovators joined for the first time and 10 re-joined the Top 100, having been included in past years. Within industrial categories, we see movement towards the tech sectors, such as electronics, software and telecommunications.

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9%
increase in fragmentation

Top 1,000’s shrinking invention market share

Six years ago, 27% of all inventions in Derwent World Patents Index™ came from the top 1,000 entities. Today, this has decreased to 18%.

With more patents incubated in smaller companies or even by individual entrepreneurs and inventors, large companies must learn how to collaborate better and explore non-traditional partnerships or risk falling behind.

5.3%
more expertise per patent

Innovation needs collaboration

In the past five years, the average number of listed inventors per Derwent World Patents Index patent record has increased from 2.84 to 2.99.

Innovation is becoming more knowledge intensive – requiring more skill, resources and multiple layers of expertise.

22%
harder to be at the top

Compression at the top

The threshold score for inclusion in the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators has increased by over one-fifth (22% over a six-year period).

The six new entrants to the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators have successfully navigated today’s competitive innovation landscape and have on average risen 250 places in the rankings since 2015.

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The world’s most innovative organizations

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