IBM loses its leading position in patents.

For the first time in decades, International Business Machines (IBM) fell from the top spot in the number of patents filed in the US in 2022, signaling a shift in the company's strategy on intellectual property.

Bloomberg, citing results from the Patent 300 list by patent firm Harrity LLP, reported that IBM's patent holdings decreased by 44% to 4,743 in 2022, ranking second behind Samsung Electronics' 8,513. While this decline occurred across all of IBM's key technologies, semiconductors and hardware memory saw the largest drops.

Dario Gil, head of research at IBM, said in an interview that the decline in the number of patents reflects a strategic shift that began in 2020, aimed at focusing the intellectual property portfolio on IBM's core business activities and freeing engineers from the time-consuming patenting process.

IBM has decided to no longer pursue the leading position in terms of the number of patents.

REUTERS

"We decided not to pursue the top position in terms of patent count anymore, but to remain a strong intellectual property company and continue to have one of the world's strongest portfolios of our priority technologies," said Gil.

The American multinational computer technology corporation has long prided itself on its patent leadership. Licensing and developing intellectual property (IP) also generates significant profits. IBM has generated over $27 billion in IP revenue since 1996. However, in recent years, that growth has slowed due to some companies protesting licensing fees.

According to Gil, IBM is not yet finished monetizing its intellectual property. “In priority areas, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cybersecurity, and quantum computing, we will continue to actively patent and protect our inventions.”

The change in the number of patents reflects IBM's broader transformation, moving from hardware and legacy infrastructure to cloud services and software. Under CEO Arvind Krishna, IBM has completed more than 25 acquisitions since April 2020.

Returning to Harrity's patent ranking, Chinese tech companies like ByteDance and Baidu have seen some of the most significant patent increases. For example, ByteDance registered a patent for a method of adding special effects to the human body in videos , commonly used in TikTok filters. Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding also saw substantial increases.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ibm-mat-vi-tri-dan-dau-ve-bang-sang-che-1851539878.htm