Fujifilm and its regional digital printing partner Xerox, Apple, Canon (which owns Océ), HP, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and controls specialist Rockwell Automation are among the newspaper industry vendors named as the world's most innovative.

The 2012 Top 100 Global Innovators list published by news agency Thomson Reuters last month, recognises companies that “strive to protect inventions via IP rights and lead the world with innovative discoveries and initiatives, based on the concept of regarding patent activity and other intellectual properties as an indicator of technological innovations and future trends”. It is based based on four principal criteria: overall patent volume, patent grant success rate, global reach of the portfolio and patent influence as evidenced by citations, using its IP and intelligence collaboration platform.

Financial analysis of the acknowledged companies gives credence to their significance in that these organisations outperformed the S&P 500 by three per cent in their market cap weighted revenue (15 per cent versus 12 per cent).

This year's winners also added 124,214 new jobs over their prior year employment figures, the company says.

The list - in alphabetical order - are 3M Company, Advanced Micro Devices, Alcatel-Lucent, Altera, Analog Devices, Apple,Arkema,AT&T, Avaya, Boeing,Brother Industries, Canon,Chevron,CNRS, The French National Center for Scientific Research, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique,Corning,Delphi, Denso Corporation, Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, Eaton Corporation, EMC Corporation, Emerson, Ericsson, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, Exxon Mobil, FANUC, Ford, FUJIFILM, Fujitsu, General Electric, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Honda Motor Company, Honeywell International, IBM, IFP Energies Nouvelles, Intel, Jatco, John Deere, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, LG Electronics, Lockheed Martin, L'Oréal, LSI Corporation, LSIS, Marvell, Michelin, Micron, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Monsanto, Motorola, NEC, Nike, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, Nitto Denko, NTT, Olympus, Panasonic, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, Raytheon, Renault, Ricoh, Roche, Rockwell Automation, Saint-Gobain, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk,Sandvik, Scania, Seagate, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Siemens, Snecma, Solvay,Sony,STMicroelectronics, Symantec,TDK, TE Connectivity, Texas Instruments, Thales, Toshiba, Toyota Motor Corporation, U.S. Department of the Army, U.S. Department of the Navy, United Technologies, Valeo, Xerox, Xilinx.