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Patents — currency of invention
THE United States Patent Office was established in 1790 and the very first patent was issued to a gentleman named Samuel Hopkins who patented a process for making potash, a type of potassium compound used to make soap.
The patent was signed by President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.
Since that time the US Patent Office has issued millions of patents and it's no coincidence that when it comes to the most patents achieved, IT brands top the list.
The first organisation to break the 4,000 patent barrier, IBM Corp is at number one.
Samsung holds the number two slot followed by Canon at number three. Microsoft is fourth and rounding out the top five is Intel.
Protection of innovation is their stock in trade.
Microsoft was granted more than 2,000 patents in 2008.
The company spends about US$8 billion a year on research and development, more than any other company in the industry.
Recently the company was awarded its 10,000th US Patent; the invention, US Patent No. 7,479,950, applies to surface computing technology.
'Most technology companies, Microsoft included, have been increasing their emphasis on IP in recent years, trying to derive greater business value from their intellectual assets,' said Bart Eppenauer, chief patent counsel, who oversees Microsoft's patent portfolio.
'One way to value a patent portfolio is to look at the quantity of patents it contains.
'Another way is to look at the influence the portfolio has on others.'
In December 2008, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ranked Microsoft's patent portfolio first in terms of its power and influence for the second year in a row across all industries.
One of the main indicators the IEEE looks at to determine 'patent power' is how often a company's patents are cited as prior art in other companies' patent applications.
'Patents are the currency of innovation,' said Eppenauer.
'They enable Microsoft to share innovation with others through licensing, and that in turn enables others to share their innovations back with us.'
In December 2003, Microsoft redoubled its efforts to broaden its IP licensing efforts.
It wanted to take the emphasis off the defensive and shift to a proactive policy of collaboration.
Since then, the company has signed more than 500 licensing agreements.
And the focus is on true innovation, not on business strategy.
So it's partnered with companies of all sizes and types, from fledgling startups to long-time industry partners and even to competitors.
Patents as knowledge-sharing tools may seem counter intuitive at first.
After all, patents do give their owners the right to exclude others from using a technology. But denying use is very different from denying to others the knowledge of the new technology, which patents by law are required to disclose.
But Eppenauer said, 'The days of the self-contained, go-it-alone company are over.
'This is especially true during the current economic downturn. Open innovation is more critical than ever in today's business world.'
I couldn't agree more, and the policy of collaboration extends past IT to many other industries.
By working together instead of against competitors, any industry will grow stronger as a whole.
Microsoft's most-cited patent is US patent no. 5,774,668 was issued on June 30, 1998.
It has been cited 302 times.
But the company's 10,000th patent was awarded to its surface computing technology.
Users can place real objects — anything from cell phones to their own fingers — on the computer's table top display and it will automatically identify the objects and track their position, orientation and motion.
This allows the objects to be associated with data or media, such as a specific collection of music or photos.
The company says there is a myriad of uses for surface computers and other touch-screen applications. For example, a group of photos from a particular vacation could be associated with a souvenir from the trip.
I look forward to it being developed for the enterprise and will be interested to see how much collaboration with third parties will be involved.
>> Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a strategic communications consultancy serving the Isle of Man. Visit her business blog, Strive Notes for frequent updates www.strivepr.com/notes or follow her on twitter.com/sherrilynne
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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