IBM Still Tops Patent List After 22 Years

IBM is the reigning king of patents.

The technology firm, for the 22^nd year running, topped the Top Ten list of 2014 U.S. patent recipients.

IBM announced today it received a record 7,534 patents in 2014, making it the first company to surpass more than 7,000 patents in just one year.

“IBM’s continued investment in research and development is key to driving the transformation of our company, as we look to capture the emerging opportunities represented by cloud, big data and analytics, security, social and mobile,” said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. “IBM’s patent leadership over more than two decades demonstrates our enduring commitment to the kind of fundamental R&D that can solve the most daunting challenges facing our clients and the world.”

IBM’s patent output exceeded second-place Samsung’s by more than 3,000.

Check out the top 10 list below:

1          IBM                          7,534
2          Samsung                  4,952
3          Canon                       4,055
4          Sony                         3,224
5          Microsoft                   2,829
6          Toshiba                     2,608
7          Qualcomm                2,590
8          Google                      2,566
9          LG Electronics           2,122
10        Panasonic                 2,095

IBM’s patents cover a range of cloud computing, analytics, mobile, social and security inventions.

During the 22 years IBM has made the top 10 list, the company’s inventors have received more than 81,500 U.S. patents. The firm did not state just how many of those patents have become profitable moneymakers, however.

One of its most recent successes is Watson, a cognitive computing technology that was originally developed as an experiment to compete against humans on the popular television game show Jeopardy.

The company, however, soon began testing ways to use the technology— which uses natural language processing and machine learning to gain insight from large amounts of data — in a bid to commercialize the technology.

In October, IBM announced Watson was rolling out across the globe with 25 countries — including Canada, England, Thailand and Spain — having industries embracing the technology in a wide array of uses from banking to health care to veterinary offices.

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IBM Still Tops Patent List After 22 Years

Jennifer Cowan is the Managing Editor for SiteProNews.

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