IBM gets highest number of US Patents in 2009

Global IT major IBM today said it received 4,914 patents in the US in 2009 and topped a list of the world's most inventive companies.

According to the IFI Patent Intelligence, which keeps US patent databases, IBM achieved an all-time high of 4,914 patents for any company. Samsung with 3,611 patents took the second position followed by Microsoft which boosted its total patents to 2,906.

"The US patent numbers reflect IBM's continued leadership as the world's premier innovative industrial organisation. IBM has a strong commitment to creating a collaborative and open environment in the patent and IP arena," IBM Research--India Director Guruduth Banavar said in a statement.

IBM also announced that for the first time, it will offer its invention know-how and patent portfolio management software to clients seeking to enhance their intellectual property (IP) management capabilities in support of innovation-based growth strategies.

IBM's know-how and patent management software can help firms effectively evaluate their patent portfolios, identify new patent opportunities and more closely align their business and IP strategies, it said.

The list of top ten patent recipients from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) includes Canon (2,206), Panasonic (1,829), Toshiba (1,696), Sony (1,680), Intel (1,537), Seiko Epson (1,330) and HP (1,273).

According to the annual corporate ranking released by IFI, for the second straight year, foreign firms collectively captured a slight majority of new US patents awarded to corporations by the USPTO.

US corporations garnered 49 per cent of all US utility patents issued in 2009 with the remainder going to foreign firms. This is only the second time that foreign companies collectively received more US patents than US-based firms.

"What we are seeing this year is innovation in American firms is far from declining, in fact, many had impressive gains and several posted record numbers of total new patents," Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence, said in a separate statement today.

As a whole, US companies received about 7 per cent more utility patents in 2009 than in 2008, compared to 6.5 per cent by foreign companies.

The US also received more than twice as many corporate patents than Japan (23 per cent), the country with the second most US patents issued in 2009. South Korea (5.6 per cent) moved into third place displacing Germany (5.2 per cent) for the first time, the report said.