IBM Corp. has reigned for nearly three decades as the top recipient of patents in the U.S. But in the past five years, the annual income the technology giant generates from those rights has slipped and the overall number of patents it produced has plateaued.
Unfavorable Supreme Court precedents and an emboldened tech industry are threatening what had been a reliable cash machine. Intellectual property rights historically brought in more than $1 billion a year, on average, helping offset massive research and development costs and shrinking revenue.
Last year, IBM’s income from intellectual property was $626 million, its lowest point since 1996, and 2019 wasn’t much higher. While it
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