South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. had more U.S.-registered patents last year than its big name U.S. competitors, including Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., according to the latest data Tuesday.

Samsung had 4,952 items patented with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, ranking it second, the data compiled by U.S.-based IFI Claims Patent Services said. IBM topped the list with 7,534 patent registrations, keeping the No. 1 spot for the 22nd year.

Japan’s Canon Inc. ranked third, trailed by Sony Corp. and Microsoft. Toshiba Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Google Inc. followed, with LG Electronics Inc. and Panasonic also being included on the top 10 list, the data showed.

Samsung, the world’s No. 1 maker of smartphones, spent 14.7 trillion won ($13.64 billion) in research and development in 2013, up 24.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the same data. It spent 11.4 trillion won in R&D through September last year. (Yonhap)