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Hewlett-Packard focuses on patent quality, not patent quantity

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The WSJ reports of Hewlett-Packard [H-P, a member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness]:

H-P has been focusing on "the quality of the patents that we seek, as opposed to the quantity," Mr. Light said. As a result, he added, H-P is seeking broad patents that relate directly to its main businesses, avoiding the costs of filing patents that may relate to more specific processes.

WSJ also mentioned Carly Fiorina:

H-P's current strategy is a departure from the approach under former CEO Carly Fiorina, who tried to boost the company's profile as an innovator, said Rich Doherty, an analyst the The Envisioneering Group who follows patent filings. Mr. Hurd, in contrast, seems more focused on shorter-term financial results, he said. He also said H-P seems to be keeping secret certain innovations, especially in its services division, rather than filing patents. "They've turned the ratio of public patents to private proprietary advantage," he said.

Fiorina, who pushed "invention" at H-P was ousted for not innovating, and separately was involved in the H-P "pretexting" scandal.

See previous IPBiz posts:

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2005/02/fiorina-out-at-hewlett-packard.html
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-hewlett-packard-pretexting-impacts.html

Separately, WSJ noted IBM was, once again, at the top of the issued patent list at the USPTO:

In 2008, International Business Machines Corp. generated more U.S. patents than any other company, according to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office compiled by research firm IFI Patent Intelligence. IBM was granted 4,186 patents last year, IFI said, up from 3,125 in 2007. It was the 16th consecutive year that IBM led the patent pack.

However, author JUSTIN SCHECK did not mention some of the kinds of patents IBM obtains, such as the "airplane toilet queue" patent.

Full post as published by IPBiz on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).