IBM sets record with 5896 US patents in 2010

ARMONK, USA: Global IT giant IBM said on Wednesday that for the 18th year in a row it patented more technology than any other American corporate entity, by receiving 5,896 patents in the US in 2010.

IBM’s 2010 patent total nearly quadrupled Hewlett-Packard’s and exceeded the combined issuances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, EMC, and Google, it said in a statement. 

Samsung came second with 4,551 patents, while Microsoft won 3,094 patents. The other companies in the top 10 chart are: Canon (2,552), Panasonic (2,482), Toshiba, (2,246), Sony (2,150), Intel (1,653), LG Electronics (1,490), H-P (1,480)

IBM said it received patents for a range of inventions in 2010, such as a method for gathering, analyzing, and processing patient information from multiple data sources to provide more effective diagnoses of medical conditions; a system for predicting traffic conditions based on information exchanged over short-range wireless communications; a technique that analyzes data from sensors in computer hard drives to enable faster emergency response in the event of earthquakes and other disasters; and a technology advancement for enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light instead of electrical signals, which can deliver increased performance of computing systems.

More than 7,000 IBM inventors residing in 46 different U.S. states and 29 countries generated the company's record-breaking 2010 patent tally. Inventors residing outside the U.S. contributed to more than 22 per cent of the company's patents in 2010, representing a 27 per cent increase over international inventor contributions during the last three years.

“Patents, and the inventions they represent, reflect the commitment to innovation that has differentiated IBM and IBMers for a century,” said Kevin Reardon, general manager of Intellectual Property and vice president of Research Business Development for IBM.

“Patent leadership is an important element of our high-value business strategy, which is focused on enabling instrumented, interconnected, intelligent infrastructures that can change how systems of all kinds work to support a smarter planet,” Reardon added.

This year marks IBM's Centennial, and from the first patent IBM received in 1911 for an invention related to punched card tabulation — to patents its inventors received in 2010 for analytics, core computing and software technologies, and smart utilities, traffic systems, and healthcare systems — the company consistently has pursued a balanced and versatile intellectual property strategy that can translate into real-world solutions, and make systems, processes and infrastructures more efficient, more productive and more responsive, said the IT giant.