Techno Babble

IBM, of course, in #1 position with 2,972 patents but falling below 3,000 for the first time since 2001.

Details of the top 25, provided byIFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer business, are shown in a report on the Yahoo Financial News site.

IFI Patent Intelligence’s 2005 Top-25 Patent Winners
1 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP 2972
2 CANON K K JP 1837
3 HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO L P 1801**
4 MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP 1720
5 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR 1645
6 MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC 1561
7 INTEL CORP 1551
8 HITACHI LTD JP 1293
9 TOSHIBA CORP JP 1288
10 FUJITSU LTD JP 1168
11 SONY CORP JP 1149
12 GENERAL ELECTRIC CO 906
13 SEIKO EPSON CORP JP 888
14 INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE 804
15 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N V NL 767
16 BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE 758
17 FUJI PHOTO FILM CO LTD JP 755
18 MICROSOFT CORP 746
19 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC 736
20 HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP 730
21 SIEMENS AF DE 693
22 NEC CORP JP 673
23 SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC 654
24 DENSO CORP JP 645
25 MITSUBISHI DENKI K K JP 629

** total includes 10 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co

http://biz.yahoo.com/…/nytu098.html?.v=35

IBM Aims to Improve Patents
A follow up on this story relates to an initiative by IBM to improve the quality of patents by improving the way applications are vetted.

The initiative will also work to establish open-source software itself as prior art against patent applications. To get there, the OSDL and IBM plan to work with Novell Inc., Red Hat Inc. and VA Software Corp.’s SourceForge.net to develop a system that stores source code in an electronically searchable format. This code repository, which IBM officials said will satisfy legal requirements to qualify as prior art, would allow patent examiners and the public to use open-source code to ensure that patents are issued only for new software inventions, according to the IBM statement.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1909553,00.asp

Related Posts:

1. European Software Patent Bill is rejected
2. Product Activation- Infringes Patent?
3. The GAUSS Project
4. Right Hemisphere awarded Patent …
5. Patents – Useful Links
6. Apple Patent – Projected Display Shared Workspaces
7. Apple Patent 3D Viewing with Multitouch
8. Source Code for .NET will be available
9. New IBM Blade Computers