Samsung Electronics ranked second in terms of the number of patents acquired in the United States last year.

U.S. researcher IFI Claims Patent Services said Monday that IBM, computer-services provider, retained the top spot for the 18th consecutive year by winning 59-hundred patents last year, up 20 percent year-on-year.

Samsung trailed IBM with 45-hundred, up 26 percent on-year, followed by Microsoft with about 31-hundred. LG Electronics ranked ninth with 15-hundred patents.

Canon, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Intel and Hewlett-Packard are also among the top ten.

Apple, maker of the iPad and iPhone, broke into the top 50 for the first time, ranking 46th, by almost doubling its number of new patents to 560.