IBM Corp. was once again awarded the highest number of U.S. patents in 2017, as the company pushes into blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies.
IBM received 9,043 patents in 2017, breaking the record it set in 2016, the company said Tuesday. A lot of the research that IBM conducts may not translate to immediate business gains, and it could take years before patents turn into a product that pays off. The company also invests in exploratory research unrelated to business lines and goals.
Despite winning the most patents for the 25th straight year, IBM is struggling to turn itself around. Slowing sales in older business lines have hurt total revenue, while growth in newer areas — including cloud, AI and cybersecurity software — hasn't yet closed the gap. Though IBM expects to show growth in the last quarter of 2017, analysts said much of that boost will come from a new mainframe computer. The company consistently spends about 6 percent of its annual sales on research and development.