Eileen McDermott, New York
IBM has become the first company to be issued more than 4,000 US patents in one year, surpassing the total number of patents earned by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, EMC, Accenture and Google combined.
According to data compiled by IFI Patent Intelligence, IBM secured 4,186 patents in 2008, followed by Samsung, Canon and Microsoft (see chart). Despite its aggressive approach, in a statement released today, the company said it would also increase the number of inventions it publishes annually - in lieu of seeking patent protection - by 50% this year, in an attempt to "stimulate innovation and economic growth".
John Kelly, IBM senior vice president and director of IBM Research, said: "Our goal is helping stimulate innovation as public investments in large infrastructure projects are being planned to boost global economies. We also anticipate that adding additional transparency to the patent system will help tackle the continuing patent quality crisis, which is impeding inventors, entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes."
IBM also announced its involvement in developing a Patent Quality Index aimed at providing an objective and empirical way to evaluate patent quality. The company is collaborating with Professor Ronald Mann of Columbia Law School and Professor Toshiya Watanabe of the University of Tokyo on the project.
At the AIPLA annual meeting in Washington DC last year, John Love, deputy commissioner for patent examination policy at the USPTO, admitted that patent quality is a "hot topic" and welcomed ideas for objective ways of determining what comprises a quality patent.
Rick Lawrence, manager of predictive modelling for IBM Research, said that "improving patent quality must become an essential priority" and cited the Patent Quality Index as one way to "increase the intelligence of the patent system and encourage the pursuit of new innovations".
2008 US Patent Leaders*
1 IBM 4186
2 Samsung 3515
3 Canon 2114
4 Microsoft 2030
5 Intel 1776
6 Matsushita 1745
7 Toshiba 1609
8 Fujitsu 1494
9 Sony 1485
10 HP 1424
* Data provided by IFI Patent Intelligence
SOURCE:www.managingip.com
