IBM Breaks US Patent Record, Tops Patent List for 19th Consecutive Year

IBM inventors received more than 6,000 patents in 2011

ARMONK, NY, 13 January 2012 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced that it set a new US patent record in 2011, marking the 19th consecutive year that the company has led the annual list of patent recipients. IBM inventors earned a record 6,180 US patents in 2011, more than quadrupling Hewlett-Packard’s issuances and exceeding by six times those of Oracle/Sun.

More than 8,000 IBMers residing in 46 different US states and 36 countries are responsible for the company's record-breaking 2011 patent tally. IBM inventors who reside outside the US contributed to more than 26% of the company's 2011 patents.

2011 US Patent Leaders*

1 IBM 6,180
2 Samsung 4,894
3 Canon 2,821
4 Panasonic 2,559
5 Toshiba 2,483
6 Microsoft 2,311
7 Sony 2,286
8 Seiko Epson 1,533
9 Hon Hai 1,514
10 Hitachi 1,465

* Data provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services
The more than 6,000 patents IBMers received in 2011 represent a range of inventions that enable new innovations and add significant value to the company's products, services, including smarter solutions for retail, banking, healthcare, transportation and other industries. These patented inventions also span a wide range of computing technologies poised to support a new generation of more cognitive, intelligent and insight-driven systems, processes and infrastructures for smarter commerce, shopping, medicine, transportation, and more.

“IBM's commitment to invention and scientific exploration is unmatched in any industry and the results of this dedication to enabling innovation is evidenced in our nearly two decades of US patent leadership,” said Ken King, general manager, Intellectual Property and vice president, Research Business Development, IBM. “The inventions we patent each year deliver significant value to IBM, our clients and partners and demonstrate a measurable return on our approximately $6 billion annual investment in research and development.”

IBM's record-breaking 2011 patent output features many interesting and important inventions, such as:

US Patent #8,019,992: Method for granting user privileges in electronic commerce security domains – This patented invention helps IBM WebSphere Commerce software customers reduce administration and resource costs by providing a flexible authentication and authorization mechanism across multiple online stores. The capability enables shoppers and administrators to have access to individual online stores or seamlessly access multiple online stores managed by the same company. It also is a key feature in enabling multiple companies to run on a single instance of WebSphere Commerce. Patent #8,019,992 was issued to IBM inventors Victor Chan, Darshanand Khusial, Lev Mirlas and Wesley Philip.

US Patent #8,037,000: Systems and methods for automated interpretation of analytic procedures – This invention describes a method for dynamically constructing natural language explanations of analytic results using templates defined by domain experts. Patent #8,037,000 was issued to IBM inventors Robert Delmonico, Tamir Klinger, Bonnie Ray, Padmanabhan Santhanam and Clay Williams.

US Patent #8,005,773: System and method for cortical simulation – This patented invention describes a method for developing a computerized brain simulation system that can mimic the cognitive systems and function of the cortex of the brain. IBM has fabricated working prototypes of experimental computer chips designed to emulate the brain’s abilities for perception, action and cognition. Patent #8,005,773 was issued to IBM inventors Dharmendra Modha and Rajagopal Ananthanarayanan.

US Patent #7,882,219: Deploying analytic functions – This patented invention empowers users to design and implement highly-sophisticated, streaming analytics on massive disparate data sources. The advanced algorithm described in patent #7,882,219 enables IBM Tivoli Network Performance Manager software to efficiently perform sophisticated analytics in near real-time. Patent #7,882,219 was issued to IBM inventors Alexander Pikovsky, David Pennell, Robert McKeown and Colin Putney.