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Bloomberg
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) dropped from the top spot for US patents in 2022, the first time in decades Big Blue hasn’t claimed the most in a year, signalling a strategy shift at the longtime
intellectual property leader.
IBM’s patent count declined 44% to 4,743 patents in 2022, falling to No. 2 behind Samsung Electronics Co.’s 8,513, according to Harrity LLP’s Patent 300 list. Technologies such as semiconductors and hardware memory saw the largest drop in IBM patents, though the reduction was across all major types.
The decline reflects a strategy shift begun in 2020 to focus the IP portfolio on IBM’s core businesses and free engineers from the time-consuming patent process, said Dario Gil, head of IBM Research, in an interview. “We decided to no longer pursue numeric patent leadership, but remain an intellectual property powerhouse and continue to have one of the strongest portfolios in the world in our priority technologies.â€
The Armonk, New York-based company has long prided itself on patent leadership — it said it had the highest number of patents for the last 29 years.