Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IBM Has Been Awarded An Average Of 24 Patents Per Day So Far In 2016 (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on from the patent-race dept.

Traditional companies continue to score a huge number of patents, reports Quartz. The publication deep dived into the patent filings to find which company has been awarded the most number of patents this year. According to its finding, IBM has been awarded 3,617 patents so far this year, whereas Samsung comes close with 3,032 patents during the same period. Behind these giants sit Google with 1,530 patents, Intel with 1,293, Qualcomm with 1,262, Microsoft with 1,232, and Apple with 1,060 patents. From the report: Although IBM's patent-producing power slowed somewhat in 2015, the number of patents it's received so far this year is up more than 13% compared to a year earlier. The company is in the middle of a painful reinvention, that sees the company shifting further away from hardware sales into cloud computing, analytics, and AI services. It's also plugging away on a myriad of fundamental scientific research projects -- many of which could revolutionize the world if they can come to fruition -- which is where many of its patent applications originate. IBM accounted for about 1% of all US patents awarded in 2015.

4 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's hard to believe a company can produce that many novel things that need protecting

  2. Who'd be an Inventor These Days? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every variation of every possibility has been legally locked up, The message I'm getting is "Don't try profiting from anything new of we'll sue you out of existence."

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    1. Re:Who'd be an Inventor These Days? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every variation of every possibility has been legally locked up, The message I'm getting is "Don't try profiting from anything new of we'll sue you out of existence."

      Well, if you happen to work for IBM, I'm guessing it is worth your time to file a patent. They probably have some kind of compensation system where you get some dollars for a patent filed and granted. And it is probably a requirement for getting promoted to higher levels. And anyway, they probably have some of the meanest bad-assed M* F* patent attorneys from Hell working for them, who know how to push a patent through.

      Now if you are some guy working alone in your garage . . . there is no way that you can compete with these professional gunfighters. You could cure cancer, and the Big Boys would find a way to block the patent.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  3. Quality not Quantity by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Despite Apple's reputation among lay people as an innovator, they're really not. They don't use much of their income on R&D.

    When it comes to modern patents where "one click to purchase" counts as an "invention" you cannot measure innovation by the number of patents or an R&D budget. Apple's innovations have been in design more than technology and despite that far smaller budget they seem to have come up with far more innovations than e.g. Microsoft for whom I'm struggling to come up with any recent innovative products except perhaps the Surface despite their far higher budget.