IBM was officially awarded another top spot this week in computing. However, it was nothing to do with direct sales of computing or software products. They were, for the 17th year in a row, awarded more patents in the US than any other company. 4,914 to be exact. The next closest company, Samsung, was 36% behind IBM with 3,611. Just for comparison, Microsoft was awarded 2,906. IBM’s dominance in the field of new patent execution [discoveries] has risen 50% since 2004.
We invest $6 billion annually in R&D and we continue to pursue patents for inventions that will advance IBM’s business strategies and our ability to serve our clients,” Christopher Andrews, a spokesman for the Armonk, New York-based company, said in an e-mail.
Among those relevant to HPC, IBM patented methodologies on computing based on their Blue Gene platform. They also published over 4,000 inventions publicly in order to avoid the headache [and paperwork] of applying for patents.
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