IBM Tops Patent List for 6th Straight Year

IBM Corp. won the most U.S. patents for the sixth consecutive year in 1998, beating its previous record by 40%, as it once again topped a list led largely by Asian firms, according to a survey being released today.

IBM received 2,682 U.S. patents in 1998 from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, roughly 750 more than in 1997 and nearly 40% more than No. 2 Canon Inc. of Japan, according to patent tracking firm IFI/Plenum Data Corp.

Six of the top 10 U.S. patent recipients in 1998 were Japanese electronics giants, continuing the trend of recent years. In the biggest advance in a decade, South Korea’s Samsung surged from 16th place in 1997 to sixth place in 1998, receiving 123% more patents.

Overall, the patent office granted 151,024 utility and statutory patents, a record number and 33% more than 1997. The increase reflected rising patent activity related to the Internet, computers, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, IFI/Plenum Vice President Harry Allcock said.

IBM officials said the computer maker’s lead reflects a redoubled effort in the last three years to tap its vast research efforts in software and Internet technology and license it to other companies.

“What you are seeing is IBM getting the lead out,” said Senior Vice President Nicholas Donofrio. “This is a result of activity that happened in our research-and-development labs two or three years ago.

“More than a third of the technologies represented by these patents already show up in products and solutions currently available from IBM,” he said.

While IBM has held the top position in U.S. patent awards for the last six years, during the decade before 1993, Japanese companies consistently laid claim to the No. 1 spot.

The rest of the top 10 for 1998 were Canon, with 1,934; NEC Corp. with 1,632; Motorola Inc. with 1,428; Sony Corp. with 1,321; Samsung with 1,306; Fujitsu with 1,205; Toshiba Corp. with 1,194; Eastman Kodak Co. with 1,125; and Mitsubishi at 1,120.

IBM’s 1998 U.S. patent portfolio includes more than 700 software-related patents and 375 related to network computing.

Several dozen patents are also directly related to two semiconductor breakthroughs: silicon germanium and silicon-on-insulator, which IBM plans to use in hand-held wireless computers.

The company’s intellectual property portfolio generates more than $1 billion annually for Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM.