IBM is tops in patents

IBM is No. 1. The No. 1, patent holder, that is. And for the 16th year in a row.

In a press release, IBM announced it had been awarded 4,186 patents in 2008, twice as many as Microsoft and Intel and three times as many as HP. All the other companies on the top 10 list are Asian—Samsung, Canon, Matsushita, you get the idea.

IBM is using the occasion to emphasize a different tack, though. It will rapidly grow the number of inventions it publishes, rather than patents. About 3,000 technical inventions will be published in 2009, the company said.

While IBM will continue to seek patents and will protect its intellectual property, its planned increase in publishing inventions will focus on those technology areas that will increase the build out of a new, smarter infrastructure. The evolution of IBM's policy builds on prior efforts to stimulate innovation by pledging not to assert certain patent rights in the area of open source software, health care, education, the environment, and software interoperability.

Meanwhile, HP is also slowing its patent growth, according to News.com. Kevin Light, an IP lawyer at HP, told the Wall Street Journal that Mark Hurd's arrival at HP marked the end of the "patent everything" mindset:

HP has been focusing on "the quality of the patents that we seek, as opposed to the quantity," Mr. Light said. As a result, he added, HP is seeking broad patents that relate directly to its main businesses, avoiding the costs of filing patents that may relate to more specific processes....HP seems to be keeping secret certain innovations, especially in its services division, rather than filing patents.