IBM, for 16 straight years, has dominated in most patents per year. This year, they have topped off at over 4,000. IBM managed to beat out their challenger Samsung by 671 patents. IBM said this in their official release, “IBM’s 2008 patent issuances are nearly triple Hewlett-Packard’s and exceed the issuances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, EMC, Accenture and Google – combined.” However, HP fired back saying they are seeking quality of the patents, not quantity.

While IBM grabbed 11.5 technical patents per day last year, they are looking to increase their technical production by upwards of 50%. This seems pretty odd to me that IBM is the leader in patents. I would think that companies like Microsoft or even Sony would be towards the top of this list. It just seems that many people have forgotten about the hero of old that rivaled Microsoft in the beginning.

It will be interesting this year to see if Samsung gains any ground on IBM or if they fall out of the race like so many others. As IBM continues their strangle hold on most patents, it makes me think that they are shooting for quantity rather than quality like so many other companies are attempting to do.

2008 U.S. Patent Leaders

1) IBM — 4,186
2) Samsung — 3,515
3) Canon — 2,114
4) Microsoft — 2,030
5) Intel — 1,776
6) Panasonic — 1,745
7) Toshiba — 1,609
8) Fujitsu — 1,494
9) Sony — 1,485
10) HP — 1,424

Source: PCE
Image courtesy of itrpreport