IBM Got More Patents in 2018 Than Google, Apple, and Microsoft Combined

How innovation is measured is not the same for everyone. Tech companies in particular could look at a number of factors ranging from revenue to public opinion. But one company in particular would be happy to be measured entirely in patents granted.

IBM has hit its 26th year with more patents granted than any other tech company. In 2018, it had 9,088—one-third more than the next company (Samsung, at 5,836). IBM's total is far enough ahead that companies you'd expect to have more couldn't even combine to beat it. Alphabet, Google's parent company, had only 2,597; Microsoft was at 2,385; and Apple wasn't even in the top ten, with 2,147.

These numbers all were quantified in the chart above by our friends at Statista, using numbers from the Intellectual Property Owners Association, which Statista puts into their Patents in the United States report. That report indicates the total number of patent applications in the US was down slightly in 2018, to 643,349 from the 650,350 filed in 2017. (The all-time high was in 2016 with 650,411). The number of patents issued was also down to 338,072 in 2018, from the all-time-high of 347,243 the year before.

In June 2018, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its 10 millionth patent since the year 1790. The total number of patents still in force in 2017? Over 2.98 million—eventually patents go into the public domain. Of that number, only 285,507 were owned by US companies. That's right: The USPTO grants patents to foreign country applicants too. Don't tell the White House.

From 2003 to 2017, computer technology patents have been most frequently applied for, at 11.63 percent. You probably won't be shocked to hear that the state with the most patents granted in the US in 2018 was California, with 43,899 of them. The Alexandria, VA–based USPTO has one of its satellite offices located in San Jose City Hall, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Does any of it matter? Some say no, that going back to the Obama Administration, big tech went after the US Patent system in a way that make patents a bragging right but leaves competitive patents as something big tech doesn't have to worry about. In a perfect system, a patent by anyone—from a big company or an individual inventor—would share tech information in a way that everyone could benefit while also protecting the inventor from being copied. The inventor should be paid (for a limited time) for their efforts, much like a copyright holder should be paid for creative works (again, for a limited time!).

Google in particular is pointed to as neutering the patent process over the last decade. It helped push for the eventual OK of court challenges to a patent—challenges that don't require a jury. Google (or any company with money for powerful lawyers) can keep taking the patent-holder back to court, over and over, until it gets a panel of judges that agrees with it.

You can bet no one is going to be filing a patent for a newer/better/faster search engine in that kind of system.

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Foreign companies—in particular, those in China—are also increasing the number of tech patents earned in the US, despite the ongoing trade war.

Meanwhile, filing a patent remains a rite of passage for engineers and developers at big tech companies, all so the patent can eventually be owned by the inventors' corporate overlords. The more patents, the more innovative a company looks to customers, even though patents are not as valuable as they one were. Especially to the small inventors.