IBM May Not Be the Patent King After All

By Steve LeVine

January 13, 2010 at 11:12 PM UTC

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No one beats IBM (IBM) on patents. For 17 years running, Big Blue has been granted more U.S. patents than any other applicant, raking in an unprecedented 4,914 in 2009. That tally is more than the number of patents granted last year to Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Oracle (ORCL), Apple (AAPL), Accenture (ACN), and Google (GOOG) combined. IBM's worldwide portfolio now covers more than 40,000 inventions for everything from microprocessors for video games to the erasable read-write CD.

Nonetheless, a study conducted for by Ocean Tomo, a Chicago intellectual property consulting firm, concludes that IBM's collection of U.S. patents over the past five years ranks only eighth in value. No. 1 is Microsoft, which ranked third, with 2,906 patents issued last year.