IBM Tops Patent List In '98; Sets Record For Most Patents Filed In A Year

For the sixth consecutive year, IBM (Armonk, NY) was awarded the most U.S. patents of any company in the world, shattering its previous record by more than 40%. In 1998, the company received 2,658 patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, earning 934 more patents than it did in 1997. This eclipsed the next closest company by 38%.

In 1996, IBM established the previous record for the most U.S. patents issued to a company in a single year when it received almost 1,900 patents. IBM maintains one of the broadest ranges of patented technologies in the information technology industry, covering all aspects of networking, computer systems, large servers, semiconductors, microprocessors, memory chips, storage and software applications. The company's intellectual property portfolio generates more than $1 billion annually.

"Our patent success over the past six years is directly contributing to IBM's growth and is instrumental in helping our customers establish themselves as e-businesses," says Nicholas Donofrio, senior VP, technology and manufacturing. "More than a third of the technologies represented by these patents already show up in products and solutions currently available from IBM, and in 1999, many more will reach the marketplace both in IBM products and those of our licensees."

IBM's 1998 U.S. patent portfolio includes more than 700 software-related patents and over 375 related to network computing. Several dozen patents are also directly related to two major chip breakthroughs announced last year—silicon germanium and silicon-on-insulator. Both technologies will be crucial in the industry's development of a new class of pervasive computing devices. These handheld products such as smart phones and Internet appliances will help business professionals and consumers access e-business data and services.

"Our commitment to research and development is helping to create significant new business opportunities for IBM and the entire information technology industry," says Marshall Phelps, Jr., VP of intellectual property and licensing for IBM. "Many of the most exploratory, risky projects of recent years are now having great impact across all our business lines."

Among the IBM products winning U.S. patents in 1998 are organic light emitting diodes (OLED) that have transparent cathode structures. OLEDs offer new applications for display technologies due to their brightness, high resolution, energy efficiency, and cost effectiveness. This patent will lead to improved performance of these displays. Mostly made of organic materials such as polymers, OLEDs can bend around corners and stretch for use in applications ranging from wearable computers to large-area displays used in venues like airports and train stations.

The cryptographic key-recovery system, another IBM patent winner in 1998, provides the company with a means for exporting strong cryptography to foreign customers, while meeting the U.S. government's export regulations. Strong cryptography is a key enabling technology for secure e-business. Based in part on this patent, the key recovery features of IBM's Keyworks product line were made to comply with the technical recommendations proposed by the Key Recovery Alliance, a consortium of companies and organizations working together to find the best approach to meeting the government's requirements.

A key component of IBM's Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technique, the SOI FET design to reduce transient bipolar current enables chip designers to build higher performance microprocessors for servers and mainframes. This '98 patent winner also lowers the power requirements of handheld and battery-operated pervasive computing devices. SOI provides an insulating layer beneath transistors on a chip, improving their electrical characteristics and allowing their designs to be further optimized. Products using this technology will be introduced later this year.

Another of IBM's patents, the system for changing user interfaces based on display-data content, shows content based on the specific interests and information needs of multiple users. For example, the system could be used to provide several different customized interfaces on the same family PC, with user-friendly content for children and more sophisticated information for adults. Another application of the technology is converting information that normally would be displayed on one device (such as a desktop PC) so that it would still be accessible on another device capable of displaying less data (such as a personal digital assistant).

The patent-filing results included in this article were reported by IFI/Plenum Data Corp., which compiles the CLAIMS patent database and annually reports on the number of patents issued to companies.

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