List: The world's top patent seekers

Awapatent, a European consultantancy firm dealing with intellectual property rights, as compiled a list of the world's top patent seekers. The figures are based on patent applications filed in 2011, the total of which rose 4-6 percent over the previous year. Two years ago ZTE held spot 22, but now occupies first place. © Awapatent Correction: This article incorrectly listed Apple and Google in the Top 12 patent seekers. The headline of this article, and graph above, has been edited to correct our error. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused.