For nearly a quarter of a decade, International Business Machines Corp. has led the nation with the number of U.S. patents earned. Last year, with 8,088 earned patents, IBM became the first company to receive more than 8,000 U.S. patents in a single year and also marked the 24th consecutive year the company has topped the list of U.S. patent recipients.
Behind the numbers is IBM’s intellectual property team of more than 100 lawyers. These lawyers are tasked with managing intellectual property portfolios for the Armonk, New York-headquartered company and generating income from IP, which in 2016, came to more than a cool $1.6 billion. They are also actively engaging in advancing IP policy matters.
