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IBM Is First Company To Get 8,000 US Patents In One Year, Breaking Record (silicon.co.uk)
Reader Mickeycaskill writes: For the 24th year in a row, IBM received the most patents of any company in the US. But for the first time it got more than 8,000 -- the first firm in any industry to do so. In total, its inventors were granted 8,088 patents in 2016, covering areas as diverse as artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, cloud, health and cyber security.
That's equal to more than 22 patents a day generated by its researchers, engineers and designers, with more than a third of the patents relating to AI, cognitive computing and cloud computing alone. IBM is betting big on cloud and other services, having spun off its hardware units like servers and PCs to Lenovo. The other nine companies in the top ten list of 2016 US patent recipients consist of: Samsung electronics (with 5,518 patents), Canon (3,665), Qualcomm (2,897), Google (2,835), Intel (2,784), LG Electronics (2,428), Microsoft (2,398), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2,288) and Sony (2,181).
That's equal to more than 22 patents a day generated by its researchers, engineers and designers, with more than a third of the patents relating to AI, cognitive computing and cloud computing alone. IBM is betting big on cloud and other services, having spun off its hardware units like servers and PCs to Lenovo. The other nine companies in the top ten list of 2016 US patent recipients consist of: Samsung electronics (with 5,518 patents), Canon (3,665), Qualcomm (2,897), Google (2,835), Intel (2,784), LG Electronics (2,428), Microsoft (2,398), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2,288) and Sony (2,181).
Looks like USPTO's approach is to grant all patents and let the courts sort it out.
IBM is betting big on cloud and other services, having spun off its hardware units like servers and PCs to Lenovo.
Thank you, thank you, IBM. You will finally succeed in killing off this "cloud" thing (a.k.a. somebody else's servers) because you have successfully turned the entire category into a patent minefield. When the Nazgul start sending demand letters these next three years, the whole thing will dry up and blow away. Nobody can stand against the Nazgul.
IBM getting 8,000 patents in a year isnt of concern to techies? Nonsense
For those concerned about inovation in any tech field these numbers are terrible news but worth being aware of. It's essentially highlighting what many of us perceive as an ever growing problem.
LG including wifi on all it's products? Glad to now know that so i can avoid their products as i dont need the risk of malware on my fridge. Your average consumer doesnt care of even understand what something like this means. A good amount of this site's readership likely does.
Apples iphone turns 10 isnt worth mentioning on a tech news site? I generally have no use for Apple products but the iphone was a truely revolutionary piece of tech and marking its 10th anniversary is (while a bit on the light news side) completely in line with the site. (I just wrote this post on my phone by the way)
A quick tip, just because you dont find it interesting doesnt mean it doesnt belong on the site. I've been reading Slashdot since the 90's and it has always had a huge variety of articles posted to it and for almost just as long had people wanting the site to focus on just what they wanted. I remember the last time I addressed someone complaining about slashdot articles they were complaining about a "slashdot new low", an article about the Simpsons. I just replied with a post with about 7 or 8 links going all the way back to the 90's of slashdot stories about the simpsons.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
Q. Why do we have such a crappy patent system?
A. In order to keep new, smaller, innovative companies from entering the marketplace.
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I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
IBM and others are looking at big money in surveillance.
Things like Watson were not built to explore or advance AI (though they may have had that effect). Watson was built to provide meaningful, timely answers using the giant pile of data various corporations and government entities are collecting on everyone.
IBM has had brain drain since Neo-Con management has taken over, gutting the company in a desperate race toward a Nike model where the corporation is reduced to, IP, executives and lawyers with outside contractors doing everything else.
I think, given who the IBM target company is, I feel our purpose is to be essential to our clients. - Ginni Rometty
No it means what that person actually has a high ethical standard for what should be patentable. Just because an idea is slightly new or unique doesn't mean it deserves to stifle up the industry with a 20 year monopoly. Just because you are the first to see a customer need for something doesn't mean someone else wouldn't have also come up with the same thing within a year or two. The only reason patents are handed out by the government is to enable progress in the "useful arts" .. so I am not sure that patenting any and every slightly unique idea is going do that.