Google and AT&T were among the top 10 companies in terms of mobile patents granted in the US and Europe for the first time in 2013.

According to research by Chetan Sharma, Samsung led the way in terms of mobile technology patents granted, followed by IBM, Qualcomm, BlackBerry, LG, Sony, Microsoft, Google and AT&T.

AT&T topped the mobile operators granted patents in 2013, followed by NTT Docomo, Sprint, Verizon, Telecom Italia, Swisscom, T-Mobile, Orange, SK Telecom and TeliaSonera.

Chetan Sharma also noted that the amount of mobile patent filings made by Facebook increased by 177 per cent year-on-year.

The gap between the number of mobile patents granted in the US and Europe widened during the year, with the US now accounting for around 76 per cent of patents granted across the two regions.

Globally, US companies accounted for 50 per cent of the top 50 list, ahead of Japan, China and South Korea. Around 25 per cent of patents granted in the US were mobile related in 2013, compared with just 5 per cent in 2001. Around 10 per cent of European patents were mobile related.

The top 10 mobile patent filers in the US were IBM, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Google, LG, Intel and Apple.

Mobile infrastructure companies granted patents last year were led by Samsung, followed by Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Qualcomm, LG, Intel, Siemens, Fujitsu, NEC and Panasonic. The leading device makers were Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Nokia, Google, LG, BlackBerry, Siemens, Fujitsu and Panasonic.

Telecommunications was the top category for granted patents, followed by digital multiplexing, digital processing (data transfer), digital processing (financial) and computer graphics.

With work taking place on LTE and LTE-Advanced, the multiplex communications category saw the largest increase in patent filings, according to Chetan Sharma.

The analyst studied data from more than seven million patents granted in the US and Europe in 2013, including 65 technology companies in the mobile space.