Patent Law

IEEE gives Microsoft top score for patents

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers? (IEEE) annual Patent Scorecard, released in December 2008, gave Microsoft the top score among all categories. This is the second consecutive year Microsoft has topped the list.
IEEE?s Patent ?Pipeline Power? ranking takes a number of factors into account, including the number of patents held, year-over-year portfolio growth, the variety of technologies influenced and the number of times a company?s patents are cited in the patent applications of other inventors.

The resulting ?Pipeline Power? metric provides a weighted score of a company?s influence on the innovation ecosystem and is a strong indication of the quality of the company?s patent portfolio.

According to chief patent counsel Bart Eppenauer, who oversees Microsoft?s patent portfolio, the company?s evolving worldwide IP strategy is the result of a global innovation philosophy combined with a strong commitment to Microsoft?s business and technological priorities within local markets and economies.

What can one say? LBE (and others) have talked about the bogus nature of patent citation statistics for years. Maybe IEEE should read the literature.

Full post as published by IPBiz on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).