The profitability of IBM patents

There are more than 40 000 IBM patents registered and active globally. There are more IBM patents registered than for any other company for 17 years in a row.

In fact, there have been 4 914 IBM patents registered in 2009 alone. Their patent registrations exceed other competitors such as Hewlett Packard, Google, and Apple.  Their patents range from patent rights for console games to rewritable compact discs. 

The value of IBM patents, however, according to an independent study conducted by an intellectual property company for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, is not the highest in the market. The company stays a leader in its field because it spends billions on research and development of new products. The company takes great care in protecting its inventions against copying by other parties.

A large part of the company’s income is from licensing agreements and from developing products for other companies. The company has learned how to make huge profits from patents and exploits every possibility fully. Many of their patents are service focused.

From the above information about IBM patents, it becomes clear that companies benefit from the monopoly rights to inventions. As such every step should be taken to patent as many inventions as possible and to ensure that the patents cannot be challenged by ensuring that the inventions meet all the requirements of patentability right from the start. If your company requires assistance in gaining patent rights for inventions, protection against infringements, and gaining commercially through license agreements, contact us at Smit & Van Wyk today.