Winning patents by the dozen is not what Indian companies are known for. The situation looks very stark if one were to look at a firm like IBM, which won a record number of US patents in 2011, bringing up its 19th straight year on top. No surprises there. The world?s biggest computer-services provider won 6,180 patents last year, according to data compiled by IFI Claims Patent Services. Samsung Electronics was second, its growth outpacing IBM, while Canon replaced Microsoft for the third spot. Panasonic moved up to the fourth position while Toshiba rose to the fifth place.
IBM has a 250-person team managing its patents, and it provides training for more than 8,000 inventors. They record about 20,000 breakthroughs annually, and only some are submitted for patents. Needless to say Indian companies are nowhere in the picture, and that?s a matter of great concern. Before we call ourselves a superpower it would make immense sense to take a look at our ability to invent and innovate. It would be pretty safe to assume that India as a country has a long way to go before staking claim to being a provider of pedigree.
IBM has been a pioneer in this regard and there is much we can learn from it. They are way ahead of close competitors like HP and Oracle in this regard. According to IBM, the fountain of innovation is not coming from a solitary source; more than 8,000 IBM-ers residing in 46 different US states and 35 countries are responsible for the company?s record breaking patent tally in 2011. The company says that more than 26% of the company?s patents last year came from those outside US. In 2011, US issued a record 224,505 patents, up 2% from 2010, Connecticut-based IFI said.
It is pretty clear that inventions and innovations can happen anywhere, in this day and age. But one needs the right ecosystem. It can?t flourish within a system which punishes failure. One should be able to fail as many number of times as possible. I am not sure if India provides such an ecosystem. It also helps to have that excess wad of cash. IBM spends $6 billion on R&D every year!
It is good to know that some of the Asian rivals are snapping at IBM?s heels, though. Samsung?s 8% growth in patents fared better than IBM?s 5%. As far as the number of patent applications are concerned, Samsung has outperformed IBM for the last two years, IFI said. Patent applications are an indication of future patent grants.
Samsung, based in South Korea, gained 4,894 patents last year, while Canon won 2,821.
Microsoft dropped to sixth place in the rankings, while Intel fell to 16th from eighth.
There were eight Asian and two US companies in the top 10.
IBM had won its first patent for a perforating machine on July 25, 1911. Since then, the company?s inventors have received more than 70,000 patents, 34,000 of which are active. The company patented DRAM cells, which became the standard for computer memory, in 1968. There are also non-computer inventions, like a laser technique that went on to become the foundation for LASIK eye surgery.
IBM?s record-breaking 2011 patent output involves many important inventions, and many Indian-origin employees have contributed to it.
US Patent #8,019,992
Method for granting user privileges in electronic commerce security domains. This patented invention helps IBM WebSphere Commerce software customers reduce administration and resource costs by providing a flexible authentication and authorisation mechanism across multiple online stores. This was issued to IBM inventors Victor Chan, Darshanand Khusial, Lev Mirlas and Wesley Philip.
US Patent #8,037,000
Systems and methods for automated interpretation of analytic procedures. This invention describes a method for dynamically constructing natural language explanations of analytic results using templates defined by domain experts. This was issued to IBM inventors Robert Delmonico, Tamir Klinger, Bonnie Ray, Padmanabhan Santhanam and Clay Williams.
US Patent #8,005,773
System and method for cortical simulation. This patented invention describes a method for developing a computerised brain simulation system that can mimic the cognitive systems and function of the cortex of the brain. IBM has fabricated working prototypes of designed to emulate the brain?s abilities for perception, action and cognition. This patented invention was issued to IBM inventors Dharmendra Modha and Rajagopal Ananthanarayanan.
US Patent #7,882,219
Deploying analytic functions. This patented invention empowers users to design and implement highly-sophisticated, streaming analytics on massive disparate data sources. The advanced algorithm enables IBM Tivoli Network Performance Manager software to efficiently perform sophisticated analytics in near real-time. This was issued to IBM inventors Alexander Pikovsky, David Pennell, Robert McKeown and Colin Putney.