IBM's patent portfolio fell 44% to 4,743 in 2022, second only to Samsung Electronics' 8,513, according to the Patent 300 list compiled by patent specialist Harrity LLP. While the decline occurred across all of IBM's major technologies, semiconductors and hardware memory saw the biggest declines.
Dario Gil, IBM's head of research, said in an interview that the decline in patents reflects a strategic shift that began in 2020 to focus the intellectual property portfolio on IBM's core businesses and free engineers from the time-consuming patenting process.
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IBM Decides to Stop Pursuing Patent Leadership |
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“We decided to no longer pursue a patent leadership position, but remain a strong IP company and continue to have one of the strongest portfolios in the world of our priority technologies,” Gil said.
The American multinational computer technology corporation has long prided itself on its patent leadership. Licensing and developing intellectual property (IP) is also lucrative. IBM has generated more than $27 billion in IP revenue since 1996. However, that revenue has slowed in recent years as some companies object to licensing fees.
IBM isn’t done monetizing its intellectual property, Gil said. “In our priority areas, including cloud, AI, semiconductors, cybersecurity, quantum, we’re going to continue to patent and defend that aggressively.”
The change in patents reflects IBM’s broader shift away from hardware and legacy infrastructure toward cloud software and services. Under CEO Arvind Krishna, IBM has made more than 25 acquisitions since April 2020.
Back on Harrity’s list of patent counts, Chinese tech companies like ByteDance and Baidu saw some of the biggest increases in patent filings. For example, ByteDance filed a patent for a method of adding special effects to the human body on videos , which is often used in TikTok filters. Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding also saw big increases.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ibm-mat-vi-tri-dan-dau-ve-bang-sang-che-1851539878.htm
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