Samsung was noted as "a perfect example" of the trend. Nearly 130 of every 10,000 patents the company files are done jointly with an academic institution.

The analysts also found that the traditional boundaries between industries and companies' areas of specialization continued to blur, largely because of the rise of the Internet of Things.

Many companies included in the study, such as Apple, Du Pont, General Electric and IBM, appeared among the top patent assignees in multiple industries outside of their core areas of focus.

Samsung, again, was noted as the "most extreme example", ranking among the top 25 patent assignees in nine of the 12 industries analyzed in the study.

"We are standing at a fascinating inflection point in the history of technological innovation," said Moftah. "The organizations in this study clearly recognize the challenges inherent in continuing to break new ground at the pace they've maintained for the last several years.

"They are taking clear strides, with strategies such as open innovation and aggressive expansion into new industries, to try to achieve even faster, better results," he said.