It was the eighth straight year the world's largest computer maker has ranked first in U.S. patents, according to IFI, a commercial patent database that issues annual rankings. IBM won 2,922 U.S. patents.
IBM spent an estimated US$5 billion for research and development last year. Salomon Smith Barney recently estimated that IBM's royalty-payment collections will rise to US$1.8 billion in 2001, from an estimated US$1.6 billion in 2000 and US$762 million in 1999. Eight companies in IFI's top 20 are based in Japan, one is in South Korea, and two are in Europe.
NEC of Japan was second, with 2,034 patents; Canon of Japan was third, with 1,897; and Samsung Electronics of South Korea was fourth, with 1,442. Lucent Technologies, the No. 1 maker of telephone equipment, was fifth, with 1,415.
The rest of the top 10, in order, are Sony, Micron Technology, Toshiba, Motorola and Fujitsu.
IBM said it won about 1,000 patents each for software and microelectronics, such as microchips, and 400 more for data storage.
Patents were awarded for a method of data storage using lasers and a photosensitive material, voice-recognition software, a system for using Internet-linked computers to work on major computational problems and ways to make smaller chips, IBM said.
IBM is the sole owner of 2,886 patents obtained in 2000 and has joint ownership of 36 more, for a total of 2,922, IFI said.
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