IBM shatters patent record

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 16 Jan 2009 at 17:55

IBM has filed more than 4,000 patents this year, shattering the previous record.

IBM claims to have earned 4,186 patents in 2008, double that of third-placed Microsoft which registered 2,030 patents.

Samsung Electronics had the second-highest number of patents at 3,515, while Intel came in third place with 1,776. It was followed by HP with 1,424.

A wireless system that detects a child's presence in a baby seat and a method for blind people to find their way around using radio frequency identification are among the patents IBM Scientists won in 2008, the company says.

IBM also earned a patent for developing a cheaper way to build nanotechnology used to make chips.

IBM says it will move away from patent protection in 2009, and increase by half the number of technical inventions it publishes annually as it attempts to spur open and wide-scale innovation.

In a somewhat meta-move IBM also plans to collaborative on a project that will develop an empirical measure of patent quality.