Not necessarily dealing with biotechnology, but it's been announced that IBM has, for the 12th consecutive year, been awarded the most patents in the U.S. The juggernaut was granted 3,248 patents in 2004. That is a helluva lot of claims, and the mind boggles at the fees paid both in terms of filing fees and attorney fees.
I love how the CNET article states that they "won" the patents. Even with how it occasionally seems disorganized, the US PTO isn't exactly holding a raffle or lottery. Still, perhaps this is indicative of the perception that large companies more easily sail through patent review while smaller inventors struggle to be heard. Personally, it seems like it's really more an indication that IBM is mammothly huge and is trying to patent every thought that comes out of an employee's mind. Can you imagine those lab notebooks?
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