India, China could be big players in patent game

Software giant Microsoft clocked its 5000 US patent recently.
This number pales in comparison with that of IBM, which has a whopping 25,000
patents to its name.

In the West, many companies are using intellectual property
as a tool to gain competitive advantage. According to ipIQ, a consulting firm
that tracks intellectual property and patents filed by companies, there has been
a significant growth in the number of patents filed by countries other than the
US.

It started with Japan in the 1980s, Taiwan and South Korea in
the 1990s, and more recently by China and India. The report notes that the
governments of both China and India have made intellectual property a priority
to boost economic growth.

ipIQ has bought out the 'Patent Scorecard 2006' that
ranks companies based on the number of patents granted, the number of
previous-year patents and growth of patents year-over-year. It also evaluates
the impact and relevance of patents by tracking the frequency with which they
are cited in scientific papers and by producing a science linkage index.

"While the Patent Scorecard's corresponding benchmark
study, the International Patent Standings, confirms these trends in China and
India, it is important to note this patenting is largely sourced from foreign
companies," said Jim Finnegan, VP-Business Development, ipIQ. "While
it will take some time for China and India to achieve the levels of corporate
innovation tracked by the Patent Scorecard, their pace of growth cannot be
ignored." North America accounted for 41 percent of the IT patents while 59
percent of the patents filed were from Asia.

Besides the scorecard, ipIQ's has also compiled a listing
of the world's Technology Top 10, which shows the dominance of Asian
companies, which occupy six

positions.

IBM occupied the number one spot while Micron Technology and
Hitachi took second and third places. Intel stood fourth and is followed by HP,
Samsung and Canon.

Not surprisingly, the semiconductor industry, which forms the core of the
high-tech industry, churns out more patents than any other industry.

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