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Press Release: AMD Ranks Fifth Among U.S. Companies In U.S. Patents Awarded
Posted By Van Smith

Date: January 22, 2002


SUNNYVALE, CA-JANUARY 22, 2002 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced it ranked 14th in the world among companies receiving patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2001, and for the second consecutive year, fifth in patents earned among U.S. based companies.

"For AMD to continue its upward trajectory, we must sustain our passion for constantly finding new and better ways to do things," said Bill Siegle, chief scientist at AMD. "Our business is driven by innovation, and the ultimate innovation index is patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

For the fourth year in a row, AMD ranked among the top 25 companies in the number of new U.S. patents received. Numbers released earlier in January by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services show that AMD earned 1090 patents last year, breaking the 1000 patent barrier for the 2nd consecutive year.

"Buyers of electronic devices often take improvements in performance for granted, and speak of 'Moore's Law' as if it were a naturally occurring phenomenon," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64, a Saratoga, CA.-based market research and consulting organization. "In reality, it takes massive investments of financial and intellectual resources to move the industry forward. Patents serve as useful barometer to gauge the effectiveness of a company's efforts with regard to the innovation that our modern society requires and our economic system rewards."

"Our current patent portfolio is a roughly equal mix of process and manufacturing patents on the one hand, and product design patents on the other," said Siegle. "Not only are we very excited about the products going out our doors today, our research and development results show our continuing commitment to performance and productivity improvement as well."

For a complete list of the top 25 U.S. patent recipients for the past three years, refer to the attached chart.

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD).

Visit AMD on the Web
For more AMD news and product information, please visit our virtual pressroom at www.amd.com/news/virtualpress/index.html. Additional press releases and information about AMD and its products are available at www.amd.com/news/news.html.

-30-
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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U.S. Patents 1999-2001 (source: IFIClaims)

1999

No.  

Company  

Patents

1  

IBM  

2,789

2  

NEC  

1,853

3  

Canon  

1,800

4  

Samsung  

1,544

5  

Sony  

1,429

6  

Fujitsu  

1,231

7  

Toshiba  

1,225

8  

Motorola  

1,207

9  

Lucent  

1,156

10  

Mitsubishi  

1,089

11  

Matsushita  

1,065

12  

Hitachi  

1,020

13  

Kodak  

993

14  

Micron  

934

15  

Philips  

866

16  

HP  

855

17  

AMD  

825

18  

Intel  

735

19  

Siemens AG 

731

20  

GE  

700

21  

Xerox  

671

22  

Texas Inst  

604

23  

Sharp  

566

24  

Sun Microsys  

565

25  

Proctor & Gamble  

551


2000

No.  

Company  

Patents

1  

 IBM  

 2,922

2  

NEC  

 2,034

3  

Canon  

 1,897

4  

Samsung  

1,442

5  

Lucent  

1,415

6  

Sony  

1,394

7  

Micron  

1,306

8  

Toshiba  

1,264

9  

Motorola  

1,203

10  

Fujitsu  

1,169

11  

Matsushita  

1,150

12  

AMD  

1,055

13  

Hitachi  

1,046

14  

Mitsubishi  

1,037

15  

Siemens AG  

932

16  

HP  

904

17  

Kodak  

876

18  

Philips  

839

19  

Intel  

797

20  

GE  

790

21  

Texas Inst  

692

22  

Sharp  

619

23  

Xerox  

577

24  

Bosch  

550

25  

Fuji Photo  

549


2001

No.  

Company  

Patents

1  

IBM  

3,453

2  

NEC  

1,966

3  

Canon  

1,877

4  

Micron  

1,643

5  

Samsung  

1,451

6  

Matsushita  

1,447

7  

Sony  

1,392

8  

Hitachi  

1,283

9  

Mitsubishi  

1,210

10  

Fujitsu  

1,208

11  

Toshiba  

1,176

12  

Lucent  

1,119

13  

GE  

1,112

14  

AMD  

1,090

15  

HP  

982

16  

Philips  

882

17  

Siemens AG  

817

18  

Intel  

811

19  

Texas Inst  

806

20  

Motorola  

785

21  

Xerox  

722

22  

Kodak  

719

23  

Bosch  

705

24  

United Microelec  

596

25  

Honda  

87

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