Middle East customers backed by IBM's leadership in Technology Innovation

According to figures released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, IBM was awarded with 3,288 patents, nearly doubling the output of the second most productive company.

In the past decade, IBM inventors have received a record 22,357 patents, besting the next closest company, Canon, by nearly 7,000 patents. During this period, IBM has generated more patents than 10 of the largest U.S. IT companies combined, including Hewlett-Packard/Compaq*, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, EMC, Oracle, and EDS.

"IBM the first patent holder in history to be granted more than 3,000 U.S. patents in a single year and we have passed that milestone each of the past two years. We believe that research and developments is key to technology leadership and have succeeded in creating a culture that truly values and stimulates innovation," said Rashid Wally, Director of Operations, IBM Middle East Egypt and Pakistan. "The most important measure of success is the value we provide to our customers in this region through the advanced technologies and solutions we derive from these inventions."

In addition to first-to-market advantages, IBM's powerful patent portfolio has helped generate approximately $10 billion in intellectual property (IP) royalties over the past 10 years.
Key IBM inventions patented in 2002 anticipate the coming era of e-business on demand, extending the company's technology lead in critical areas such as autonomic computing, grid computing and nanotechnology.

* The USPTO began reporting the combined patent totals of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq in January 2003.

For more information on IBM's patents portfolio, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/licensing/patents/portfolio.shtml