By Scott Oldach and Nick Stabinsky of Patent Board™The Information Technology industry includes companies involved with computer
software, hardware and peripherals it involves modems, motherboards, data processing, motion picture
technology, internet service companies, as well as, those involved with manufacture of faxes, printers
and copiers. 143 companies are represented in this industry.
The Patent Scorecard is organized at the company level, including all U.S. patents held by each
company. 29 of the companies in this industry are also in other industries. For those
companies, the patents are segmented into each appropriate industry. All 2008 rankings and
indicators are based on the previous 12-month activity as of March 2008. The Patent Board
continues to evolve our indicators as we advance the importance of Intellectual Property as the New
Asset Class.
Information Technology companies account for 18% of all patents in the Patent
Scorecard, surpassed only by Semiconductor. IBM has a larger portfolio than any other
company in the IT industry and across all industries worldwide. IBM, Microsoft Corp and Hewlett-
Packert Company maintained their top three spots within the Top 10, and all but Hewlett-Packard,
Canon Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., saw growth in their patenting. The rush to patent suggests
that there is more going on in this industry than open-source software.
Current Impact™ grew above the 5-year average for half of the Top 10
companies; IBM, Microsoft, Canon, Xerox, and Seiko. When combined with the growth in patents
issued, this industry remains strong. Leaders in this industry require a strong consistent
commitment to patents. Innovation Cycle Time™ grew approximately 1-year over the 5-
year average in all the Top 10 companies showing a slowing in innovation.
Microsoft’s portfolio is challenging IBM for leadership within the IT industry
with a leading Current Impact™ index of 1.4 and 20% annual growth in patenting. In
addition, Microsoft maintains a strong Science Strength™ suggesting that there is a pipeline of
future innovations in store. Five of the Top 10 companies are represented in multiple industry
rankings. IBM, Canon, Hitachi, Seiko Epson and Toshiba have their patents allocated to multiple
industries. The allocation is based on a proprietary industry mapping tool which improves
company to company comparison by insuring that the indicators are based on patents supporting the
analyzed industry, in this case, Information Technology.
Xerox, best known for its copiers also creates document management
software. They jumped two positions in this year’s ranking by improving both patents-
issued by 2% and Current Impact™ by 6%. Xerox displaced EMC Corp., a leading provider
of RAID (redundant array of independent disks) storage systems, from the Top 10. Canon
swapped places with Hitachi Ltd. moving to rank #4 overall. Canon, a diverse company, spans
five industry segments including Information Technology. Canon migrated its technology focus to
digital and their patenting in the IT industry has increased. Canon has recently teamed with
Toshiba, who is ranked 13th on the IT Patent Scorecard, to develop surface-conduction electron-emitter
display (SED) products, an alternative to liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma technologies.
