Three Connecticut companies made the list of the world's most innovative companies. The ranking comes from Thomson Reuters, which issues an annual list of the top 100 global innovators.
This year, Hartford-based United Technologies, Fairfield's General Electric, and Norwalk-based Xerox are all honored. The ranking is based on the overall number of patents filed by the companies, the number of patents that were granted, the global reach of the company's portfolio and the number of times its patents were cited.
This is the third year the ranking has been published. Xerox and GE have been on the list every year. This is the second year United Technologies has made it, while its legacy business Hamilton Sundstrand has also previously been on the list.
Thomson Reuters says the companies that rank highly for innovation outperform others on the stock market, and create more jobs than average. They also spend more on research and development. The list took account of companies across the globe; 46 of the 100 are based in North America.
