IBM bags most US patents in 2006

By Alun Williams

Posted on 12 Jan 2007 at 13:11

Big Blue has topped the patent pile once again, earning 3,621 patents in the US in 2006. IBM outdid its own previous records and topped the patent list for the fourteenth consecutive year.

While IBM was awarded 3,651 patents, Samsung was second with 2,452 and Canon was third with 2,378. This was according to figures from IFI, which compiles the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) annual list of the top 35 patent winners.

IBM chose this moment to announce that it will develop and host an 'Inventors' Forum'. This will be an online initiative intended to debate ideas on how smaller enterprises view patent systems and can improve reform efforts.

The most important topic for debate, and one cited by IBM, will be improving patent quality. This has long been a controversial issue, with the likes of Amazon patenting one-click technology, the Eolas and JPG disputes and Microsoft's button press patent among those getting headlined.

With the USPTO having gained a reputation for being too generous in its awards, it has already announced a series of initiatives to improve the patenting process, backed by IBM and proponents of open-source including the OSDL. One of the major elements is the acceptance of open source software as potential prior art.

The increasing prevalence of intellectual property disputes within the technology industry, in particular, has drawn attention to the quality of national patent systems, and this was a factor highlighted by the IFI itself: 'Although the number of patents being granted is not the only gauge of technological advancement, the relative increase in number of patents being generated indicates a growing emphasis on the value of intellectual property,' said general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence, Darlene Slaughter.

'2006 panned out as a banner year in terms of the number of individual patents granted and leads us to believe that the USPTO is making headway in addressing its backlog of patent applications,' she added.

You can find the Top 35 on the IFI Claims website, but the top 10 is as follows (number of patents awarded in brackets):
1 IBM (3651)
2 Samsung (2453)
3 Canon (2378)
4 Matsushita (2273)
5 Hewlett-Packard (2113)
6 Intel (1962)
7 Sony (1810)
8 Hitachi (1749)
9 Toshiba (1717)
10 Micron Technology (1612)

Coincidentally, the USPTO has just recognised its one-millionth Web-based trademark application. Donald Junck, an entrepreneur from Sioux Falls in South Dakota, filed the one-millionth electronic trademark application back in November 2006 to protect his particular trademark, Bait Craft, which is apparently used for fishing tackle boxes.