Samsung and LG have been in competition for more than 50 years. The rivalry between two Korean multinational conglomerates is so fierce that their employees avoid going to restaurants and places where they know the other side hangs out.
Isn’t it similar to how football fans avoid pubs/restaurants on the day of a game where they know fans of a rival team go?
But how does their performance at the USPTO compares? Let’s have a look!
Samsung and LG both are amongst the top 10 patent filers with the USPTO. Samsung files more than double the number of patent applications than LG and also has the biggest portfolio of active patents in the US.
The grant rate of LG on the other hand is quite impressive at 86.8% and is better than the US technology giants like Microsoft (78%) and IBM (~85%) which file a similar number of applications at the USPTO.
| Total Applications | Granted Patents | Grant Rate | Average Grant rate of GAUs | |
| Samsung | 163804 | 110215 | 75.33 | 80.07 |
| LG | 65293 | 48235 | 86.86 | 77.2 |
Samsung’s grant rate of 75.3% is even less than the average grant rate of USPTO. This becomes even more shocking when we see the average grant rate of art units where Samsung files patents: It is 80.07% which is quite good and is even better than the average grant rate of art units of LG (77.2%).
In the table below, I’ve compared the performance of LG and Samsung at the common art units. If you are interested in seeing their performance at their top art units, consider following these links:
* LG’s grant rate is 9% higher than the average grant rate of USPTO
* Samsung’s grant rate is 4.7% less than the average grant rate of its Art Units
| Art Unit Code | Technologies | LG’s Allowance Rate | Samsung’s Allowance Rate |
| 2871 | Optics: Liquid Crystal Cells, Elements and systems | 95.45% | 79.09% |
| 2629 | Selective Visual Display Systems | 73.79% | 57.76% |
| 2879 | Optics: Electric lamp and discharge devices | 86.89% | 77.17% |
| 2617 | Telecommunications, Multiplex Communication | 80.34% | 57.59% |
| 2872 | Optical: Systems and elements | 88.96% | 80.59% |
So who wins here?