back to article IBM: Hey, Intel and pals. Look on our massive patent pile and despair

IBM has once again been crowned the leader of the annual patents list, way ahead of US tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Apple. It's the 22nd year in a row that Big Blue has led the pack with its patent stash, which a company can use as a pile of competitive and anticompetitive weapons in the software world. Big Blue …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you're going for the next three US companies in your lede, you meant Microsoft (5), Qualcomm (7), and Google (8). Apple didn't even crack the top ten.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not entirely unexpected.

      Their R&D is very tightly coupled to product. This generates "useful" patents which are related to product which are rather unsurprisingly few in numbers. As a result every time Apple comes up with something really new it ends up acquiring 3rd party IPR from somewhere. For example a lot of othe original iPhone UI patents can be traced to IPR which was originally developed by BT labs and several other companies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        >UI patents

        >useful

        pick one

        Unless you mean "useful to the legal department"

  2. JassMan
    Trollface

    Never mind the quality, feel the width.

    The real question is not how many they have filed, but how many are useful for improving life on this rock. Are they patents which can actually be implemented to create something useful, or are they descriptions of prior art intended to stop other corps with a lot of lawyers from suing.

    Ok, there was the (in)famous case of some fruity corporation making a load of dosh from round corners but that was a design so obvious that the patent should never have been granted in the first place, and they certainly shouldn't have been given damages for infringement. When all is said and done, at the microscopic level everything has round corners. Go smaller and everything has raggedy corners.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      I very much doubt that IBM - or any other company, really - is in the business of improving life on this rock.

      Some things they do may have an effect on that orientation, but the primary goal is always the same : to increase shareholder satisfaction, i.e. to make more money.

  3. Leeroy

    Real world value.

    Is it just me or are these patents just going to be used to protect their own arses from the competition ? I have a great idea every 7 seconds on average, I have no doubt that some are original but I really don't think I could enforce royalties every time a couple tries reverse doggy banana splash hoopla. I would explain but it's (not) currently under review by the patient office.

    Also... If anyone has any prior art I need a pic or it didn't happen.

    1. edge_e
      Gimp

      Re: Real world value.

      currently under review by the patient office

      Is that what us normal folk call the hospital?

  4. Eddy Ito

    Nice

    So what they're really saying is "back off, mess with us and you get to read through this stack of mostly crap but you still have to read it carefully and by the time you do, the stack will be twice as high".

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh no. Ginni is still on about SCAMS? I guess I should brace myself for another 40 hours of inane pseudo-training (ie marketing rebadged as training) so I can be 'relevant'.

  6. luis river

    the quantity doesn't care

    All waporware, doesn't care the number total of patents but its weight or individual importance and so much value MSFT, Hewlet Packard like other companies its R&D portfolio is of great importance

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: the quantity doesn't care

      I've seen Shannon generators do a much better job at producing plausible text. Back to the lab with you!

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