Microsoft Takes On IBM For Title Of Patent Leader

At the annual Microsoft financial analyst meeting Thursday in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft Chief Architect and founder Bill Gates said the software giant plans to step up patent filings as part of a plan to achieve growth through developing software innovations.

Microsoft will file for more than 3,000 patents in fiscal year 2005, which began July 1, Gates said. This is a "fairly dramatic increase" over its fiscal year 2004 patent activity, in which slightly more than 2,000 patents were filed, he said.

IBM has been the patent leader in the United States for 11 consecutive years, filing more than 3,000 patents in both 2002 and 2003.

Gates cited a host of patented technologies Microsoft has introduced over the past year, including new approaches to television, interactive gaming and speech recognition as proof that Microsoft continues to drive innovation through new technologies.

"We think, patent for patent, what we're doing is if anything more valuable than what others are doing," Gates said.

In his presentation to kick off the daylong meeting, Gates also highlighted Microsoft's plans to tie valuable work within the Microsoft Research Group to its future product plans.

Gates cited the failings of Xerox to map its groundbreaking research to its actual product offerings as a mistake Microsoft is determined not to make.

"We try to make sure Microsoft research is not separate from the product groups," Gates said. "If you look at [the case of] Xerox, the research didn't fully pay off for the company."