If my foresight were as clear as my hindsight, I should be better off by a damned sight.
If my foresight were as clear as my hindsight, I should be better off by a damned sight.
IBM's 21st Century Patent Leadership Home Page
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Date Published: July 26, 2021
Date Modified: October 10, 2025 |
There are two industry measurements of patent leadership: one is quantity and the other is quality. The industry so far has been focused on the former. It is time the latter gained more attention. To summarize briefly: in 2022, IBM forfeited its three decades of patent leadership to Samsung. At the end of 2024, IBM had fallen to eight place in the yearly, quantity production of patents and to twentieth place in the global production of quality patents.
These are the two types of patent measurements:
Patent quantity, patent quality, and other patent information is available at IFI CLAIMS Patent Services: [here].
These are the two types of patent measurements:
- Three decades of IBM's yearly patent grants shown in the chart above, documents the "quantity" of the corporation's patent production over the last thirty years--the last four years of which have dropped by -1.6%, -4.9%, -49.3%, -16.7% and 32.6%--down an overall -73%. IBM's yearly patent-grant leadership was being challenged by Samsung's yearly consistent performance until finally--at the end of 2022, Samsung replaced IBM as patent leader. Kudos goes to Samsung, but it should be noted that it was also due to IBM's dropping patent production over the last five years. [See competitive chart in this article below]. This is a measurement of yearly patent production or quantity.
- IFI CLAIMS Patent Services “Ultimate Owner Ranking,” a new measurement, took front and center in 2018. Although this is still not a perfect measurement for patents, it is more effective in measuring a corporation's worldwide patent ownership, efficiency, and effectiveness: the quality of patents being produced used and maintained. With IFI CLAIMS new "patent families" measurement, IBM slipped in 2024 to a very, very distant twentieth place behind the first place leader which is now: State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC). Samsung is now in third place.
Patent quantity, patent quality, and other patent information is available at IFI CLAIMS Patent Services: [here].
IBM's 21st Century Patent Leadership Ended in 2022
- An Introduction to IBM's Patent History
- IBM's Three Decades of Patent Leadership Came to an End in 2022
- A New "Quality" Patent Measurement Makes its Mark in 2018
- A History of IBM's Ultimate Owner Patent Performance
An Introduction to IBM's Patent History
There is no taking away IBM’s decades of historical patent leadership from those who were responsible for moving ideas into the realm of patentable, revenue-producing offerings. Patents have been important to IBM since its founding.
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Other American corporations such as the Eastman Kodak Corporation have transformed whole industries through patents. In its case, taking photography from the realm of professional only, to an enjoyable form of mass recreation: "You press the button ... we do the rest."
In 1938, Tom Watson Sr. told his shareholders that in 1937 “85 patents with 985 claims were granted” and “299 applications were pending.” He commented that in the twenty-four years since he took over the company, it had obtained 1301 patents. In comparison, IBM was granted 9,126 patents in 2020. It is a proud history. |
Eastman-Kodak was built upon patents.
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Unfortunately for the corporation and its researchers, a major change has been taking place since Arvind Krishna took charge of the corporation. The quantity of IBM's patents has fallen every year for five years under Arvind Krishna's leadership.
IBM's yearly patent production is now down 73% in the last five years.
IBM's yearly patent production is now down 73% in the last five years.
IBM's Three Decades of Patent Leadership Came to an End in 2022
In 1992, Japanese companies had owned the first-place patent position for a decade. IBM was in a distant sixth place, but the next year it jumped from sixth into first place. It did not relinquished this first-place position for three decades. This leadership position was maintained by the individuals who worked for three separate chief executive officers: Louis V. Gerstner, Samuel J. Palmisano, and Virginia (Ginni) M. Rometty.
Unfortunately, IBM lost this leadership position in 2022.
Unfortunately, IBM lost this leadership position in 2022.
In 2022, after three decades, IBM lost its yearly patent leadership position to Samsung. As of 2024, Samsung is still a top-three patent leader with 6,377 patents compared to an eight place finish by IBM with only 2,465 patents.
From 1993 to 2021 this was an amazing performance turned in by IBM's worldwide team of engineers, architects, and developers, but because of a change of leadership in 2020 . . . as can be seen in the chart above . . . IBM's patent production has fallen by 73% over the last five years.
As shown in the chart below, this opened up an opportunity for Samsung to displace IBM as the yearly patent-grant leader. In 2022, Samsung surpassed IBM in yearly patent-grant production and has grown that lead into 2024 when it produced 6,377 patents to IBM's 2,465.
As the chart reflects, Samsung was the consistent performer while IBM's patent production fell.
As the chart reflects, Samsung was the consistent performer while IBM's patent production fell.
A New "Quality" Patent Measurement Makes its Mark in 2018
In 2018, a new measurement took front and center over the yearly-patent grants performance, as a measurement for a corporation's overall, corporate-wide, patent performance and retention: IFI Claims Patent Services “Ultimate Owner Ranking.” Although this is still not a perfect measurement for patents, it is more effective in measuring patent ownership, patent efficiency, and patent effectiveness: quality.
As seen in this comparative chart, Samsung has been efficiently growing its patent leadership in this worldwide, quality measurement while IBM has only maintained, not grown, its corporate-wide patents.
In fact, in 2024, IBM saw a corporate-wide, worldwide drop in patents of 11.5%.
As seen in this comparative chart, Samsung has been efficiently growing its patent leadership in this worldwide, quality measurement while IBM has only maintained, not grown, its corporate-wide patents.
In fact, in 2024, IBM saw a corporate-wide, worldwide drop in patents of 11.5%.
By this new, updated measurement, Samsung had more than double the patent families of IBM in 2024: 180%.
According to both the old (quantity) and the new (quality) patent measurements, there is a new patent leader: Samsung. Of course, it all depends on how an analyst looks at the data, or how the displaced patent leader chooses to react to it. A corporation can continue to live in the past with its old glories and churn out press releases about a less meaningful measurement, or it can offer excuses in 2022 press interviews saying that it had decided to do this in 2020--and is just now telling everyone about the "new strategy," or IBM can get back to what works and invest in making people more productive, its processes more effective and its products more valuable ... and ...
... supporting its scientists in their efforts to discover, invent and patent new technologies for the future.
... supporting its scientists in their efforts to discover, invent and patent new technologies for the future.
A History of IBM's Ultimate Owner Patent Performance
The following three articles are similar. The only difference is the actual performance of the top three performers in each year: 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. The articles utilize the same baseball analogy to discuss the differences between two competitors, one of which has a philosophy of “putting runners on base” (IBM) and another which “drives runners across home plate" (Samsung).
The links below were produced as this author anticipated the fall of IBM (which occurred in 2022) and the rise of Samsung in yearly patent production. IBM's overall ultimate owner patent performance is documented above as it continues to lack investment in this critical area.
No further updates are necessary since 2021-- it is the same story, year after year, just getting worse.
The links below were produced as this author anticipated the fall of IBM (which occurred in 2022) and the rise of Samsung in yearly patent production. IBM's overall ultimate owner patent performance is documented above as it continues to lack investment in this critical area.
No further updates are necessary since 2021-- it is the same story, year after year, just getting worse.