Patent, Trademark & Copyright : Law Office of Kloss, Stenger & LoTempio

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office “Performance and Accountability Report of Fiscal Year 2011” the USPTO granted an all-time high 244,430 United States utility patents in 2011.

Asian companies hold eight of the top 10 spots on the 2011 patent list and 25 or half of the top 50 U.S. patent-grant recipients with U.S. firms having17 spots. Asian countries represented in the top 50 include Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Most of the companies in the Top 50 were up from 2010, many shattering records and posting double-digit percentage gains.

IBM has held down the #1 patent rankings position for 19 consecutive years, with a record 6,180 patents in 2011, up from 5,896 in 2010. IBM was the first company to break 5,000-patent in a single year in 2010 and in 2011 the first to break the 6,000-patent mark in a single year.

IBM’s 2011 patent total was almost five times as many as Hewlett-Packard’s 1308 and exceeded the combined issuances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, EMC, Apple and Google.

More than 8,000 inventors residing in 46 different U.S. states and 36 countries generated the IBM's record-breaking 2011 patent tally. IBM inventors residing outside the United States were responsible for 26% of the company's 2011 patents.

Although in terms of patent grants, IBM has been No. 1 for the lat 19 years, Samsung's published applications eclipsed those of IBM in the last two years... so is the "writing on the wall" that the 19 year streak will end in the next couple years?

List of the top 10 company's to receive a US patent in 2011:

1. International Business Machines (US) 6180
2. Samsung (Korea) 4894
3. Canon K K (Japan) 2821
4. Panasonic Corp (Japan) 2559
5. Toshiba (Japan) 2483
6. Microsoft Corp Corporation (US) 2311
7. Sony Corporation (Japan) 2286
8. Seiko Epson Corp (Japan) 1533
9. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd (Taiwan) 1514
10. Hitachi (Japan) 1465

Where are the most inventors with patents coming from in the U.S.? The inventors come from every state and all of the territories. In 2011, the top five states that led the list in numbers of patents were:

1. California 30,397
2. Texas 8,054
3. New York 8,026
4. Washington 5,227
5. Massachusetts 5,003

According to the "Performance and Accountability Report of 2011" of the 244,430 patents that were issued a little bit less than half (120,178) were issued to United States citizens. The remaining 124,252 issued patents went to citizens of a foreign country.

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Watching the former Jeopardy champions versus Watson the IBM super computer makes you wonder how far innovation will take us in the future.

Can a computer think like a man? Here IBM made a computer that can speak and understand language and the nuances of questions like those that are asked on Jeopardy.

But can it carry on a conversation or make life or death or even everyday decisions?

Matt Silverman as a special to CNN wrote that "Watson doesn't really "think" anything, and it struggles with simple questions that most humans can answer without a second thought."

IBM wants to push the limits of science and push the limits of human accomplishment. IBM scientists state that there are two types of innovation:

• Incremental innovation improving existing products and advancing them in a linear fashion; and
• Exploratory grand challenges like making a computer think like a man.

I was wondering how many answers these guys knew but were just not as quick as the computer and here is what  Ken Jennings had to say on  on People.com TV Watch:

"Is it really head and shoulders above the best human Jeopardy! players, the way it looked on TV? Not by a long shot," Jennings wrote. "The reflexes of even a very good human player will vary slightly, but not Watson's. If it knows the answer, it makes the perfect buzz. Every single time. And it's hard to win if you can't buzz."

John Timmer of Ars Technica wrote for Wired Science that the world’s total CPU power can't compare to "one human brain." And if our brains are the ultimate computer why can’t we organize and pull up information the way Watson can?

I attempted to Google the information as quick as the answers were given and the Google search engine invariably came up with the right information for the question somewhere on the page. Remember in Jeopardy Alex Trebek gives the answer and the contestant must supply the question.

But the real question is can the computer understand the nuances of language? Even though a computer beat the grand champion Jeopardy players isn’t it still prone to silly mistakes?

In the second day the machine wrongly guessed Toronto to the answer: "Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero, its second largest for a World War II battle." The Final Jeopardy category was U.S. Cities. Shouldn't the computer have known Toronto is not a a US city? Luckily for the computer it wagered very little in Final Jeopardy.

Here is what IBM posted on its webpage:

The challenge is over. Watson, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter concluded their final round of Jeopardy! and the winner was… resoundingly, humankind. Watson’s advances in deep analytics and its ability to process unstructured data and interpret natural language will now be applied to humanity’s most vexing problems. If we can teach a computer to compete on Jeopardy! what could it mean for science, finance, healthcare and the future of society?

How can this type of technology help the human race? Will computers get to the point where we can simply carry on a conversation with them? The Watson computer by IBM certainly is the most advanced computer in the world and I didn't hear Alex Trebek try to start a conversation with the computer.

But even so, it never ceases to amaze me as to how fast technology improves. In fact I am dictating this blog post using a Dragon app on my iPad. And although I am not carrying on a conversation with this computer, I am talking to it and it understands my language and interprets it and puts it in writing on this electronic device on my lap. And I just take it for granted that it operates as such.

The IBM people speak about how they helped put a man on the moon in 1969. At that time the computing technology was so inferior to today's but yet I remember in 1969 thinking that our technology was so great and that what we accomplished in those few years after Pres. John F. Kennedy gave us the space challenge was more than all the technology the world could gather up until that point.

I truly was proud to be an American when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and I am proud of the US innovation of today. I like the idea of IBM pushing the limits of technology and I hope that someday soon we can all profit from this technology either in the medical field or our everyday lives as they discussed on the Jeopardy show. I certainly wish that my car would understand me better when I try to get directions using the voice recognition.

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In a January 12, 2010 press release IBM reported that it was awarded more U.S. patents than any other company in the world for a 17th straight year,  breaking its own record by receiving 4,914 patents in 2009. The number of patents awarded to IBM was nearly four times that received by Hewlett-Packard and was more than the combined total patent allowances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, Accenture and Google.

Data provided by IFI Patent Intelligence indicated that South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co came in second with 3,611 and Microsoft Corp., was awarded 2,906 patents to place third in the patent race. The figures clearly show IBM’s commitment to being the world's leader when it comes to filing new patent applications. The reason why is simple, they make a lot of money by protecting their innovation and exploiting their patent portfolio through licensing deals.

Steve Levine of Bloomberg.com reported that Christopher Andrews, a spokesman for the IBM said “We invest $6 billion annually in R&D and we continue to pursue patents for inventions that will advance IBM’s business strategies..."

2009 U.S. Patent Leaders*

1. IBM 4,914
2. Samsung 3,611
3. Microsoft 2,906
4. Canon 2,206
5. Panasonic 1,829
6. Toshiba 1,696
7. Sony 1,680
8. Intel 1,537
9. Seiko Epson 1,330
10. HP 1,273

* Data provided by IFI Patent Intelligence

In addition to filing patents to stop others from using their technology, IBM published almost 4,000 defensive publications so that others are precluded from filing patent applications on certain technology and in turn stopping IBM from using that technology. As a result this technology is open and free for anyone to use because it is in the public domain. Tom Colson the CEO of IP.com  stated in a recent blog post,

"By definition, defensive publishing is the practice of placing innovation into the public domain. Although the tactic is not new, when used hand in hand with patents and trade secrets, it lets companies efficiently build and maintain competitive IP portfolios."

IBM reports, "IBM released these inventions through publication as part of its commitment to improving patent quality. Consequently, the inventions are freely available in a public database of prior art and can be cited by patent offices in limiting the scope of patent applications. The company's publication effort may also spur follow-on innovation, which enables dynamic business growth."  

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