Actually, Richard, yours is not a naive question at all. IBM would
appear to be prosecuting far more cases domestically than
internationally, given that the PCT filing route is more and more common
as a means of pursuing international patent protection. Some of that
difference is explained by differences in statutorily patentable subject
matter between the US and the PCT/WO, such as biotechnology topics, as
well as software patentability. But it also may suggest that IBM is
investing much more heavily in their US patent portfolio than in
international patent protection, even though IBM is obviously a huge
multinational corporation. You may want to consider IBM's pattern of
patent assertion internationally, that is, are they filing infringement
actions extensively outside of the US? If a corporation does
considerable business internationally, as IBM surely does, then
international patent filing practices often are commensurate with loss
of revenue risk if infringement suits exclude a company from a national
market. IBM has used its huge patent portfolio over the years for
successful licensing/cross-licensing initiatives as well, where they may
well get the largest return on their investment for domestic patent
protection, which is presumably also their largest market.
Roy Zimmermann
Patent Information Specialist
612-514-3304
roy.zimmermann@medtronic.com
rzimmerma@aol.com
>>> "Bill Murray" <billmurray2@hotmail.com> 01/18/00 08:43AM >>>
Non-member submission from ["Richard Poynder" <df04@dial.pipex.com>]
Hi,
Forgive me if this is a naive question, but I was struck that the
figures published by Micropatent and IFI on the top patenting
companies show IBM as one of the top (if not *the* top) patenting
company, whereas if you look at the PCT figures published on the WIPO
site (http://www.wipo.int/eng/pct/newslett/1999/99_08/99_08-06.htm
http://www.wipo.int/eng/pct/newslett/1998/98_08/98_08-01.htm)
IBM has position 43 in 1997 and is down to position 81 in
1998. The leading company in both cases on the PCT tables
is Siemens. I assume that the Micropatent and IFI tables are based
on US granted patents, which would make a difference, but
I have been told that as this (not surprisingly of course) gives a US
bias the PCT stats are a better guide -- as so many are now using it,
and the main countries can all file and publish in their own languages
(whereas US patents have to be in English)
As I say, this might be a naive question from a journalist (and it is
possible that I have misunderstood the available stats) but I would
be interested to hear other people's views on this (off the list
perhaps),
and to know whether anyone has tried to consolidate, say, the US, EPO,
PCT and JPO patent figures in order to give a more global picture
as to the top patenting companies in the world (rather than just the
US).
Best wishes,
Richard Poynder
Freelance Journalist
Tel +44 (0)1844 215646
Fax: + 44 (0)1844 215646
Mobile +44 (0)793 202 4032
E-mail: Richard.Poynder@journalist.co.uk
Web: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/df04/
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Murray <billmurray2@hotmail.com>
To: <piug-l@derwent.tecc.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 2:19 PM
Subject: FWD: Top patenting companies announced by IFI
>Non-member submission from [Ificlaims@aol.com]
>
>According to the IFI Patent Intelligence and Technology Report
>2000, IBM Corporation leads in number of U.S. patents.
>
>IBM Corporation continues with top honors in 1999 by receiving
>2,789 US patents or 37% more than the next company who is NEC
>Corporation receiving 1,853 patents. Only three US corporations
>namely IBM, Lucent Technologies and Motorola appeared in the top
>10 companies receiving US patents in 1999.
>
>To review our press release and a listing of the top 53 companies
>receiving US patents in 1999, please visit our web site at
>www.ificlaims.com.
>
>
>Harry M. Allcock
>Vice President
>IFI CLAIMS Patent Services
>
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 10 2001 - 15:58:04 EDT