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> You may actually be ahead of other tech companies for once IBM Research is and always has been an industrial research powerhouse. I doubt you could name a co
by Cyph0n 9y ago
> You may actually be ahead of other tech companies for once
IBM Research is and always has been an industrial research powerhouse. I doubt you could name a company that has contributed so much to so many different fields over the past few decades (Bell Labs is the universal exception).
From [1]:
"IBM Research's numerous contributions to physical and computer sciences include the Scanning Tunneling Microscope and high temperature superconductivity, both of which were awarded the Nobel Prize. IBM Research was behind the inventions of the SABRE travel reservation system, the technology of laser eye surgery, magnetic storage, the relational database, UPC barcodes and Watson, the question-answering computing system that won a match against human champions on the Jeopardy! television quiz show."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Research
- derwiki 9y ago> won a match against human champions on the Jeopardy! television quiz show. I'm _much_ more impressed by Google's AI Go champion. And besides Watson, what has IBM Research done in the past 20 years? Personally I would have thought they'd be more involved in self-driving cars. (Disclaimer: I interned for IBM Research 10 years ago)
- Cyph0n 9y agoIBM isn't a software-only company: they do research in advanced materials and semiconductor physics, low-level computer architecture, integrated circuit testing, and so on. When you look at the bigger picture, IBM Research has been doing amazing things.
- derwiki 9y agoWhat stands out to you in the last 20 years?
- Cyph0n 9y agoIBM has been awarded more patents per year than any other company for the last 24 years[1]. In 2016 alone, IBM published ~22 patents per day, and ended up being ~2500 patents ahead of Samsung (#2). [1]: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/51353.wss http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/51353.wss
- bob_theslob646 9y agoDoes that necessarily mean that is impressive?( I know it is, I am just asking for someone who may not understand what having that type of scale of IP enables a company to do.)
- derwiki 9y agoProtective war chest: don't sue me, I probably own a patent you're infringing upon. At least my lawyers will make it seem so.
- foreigner 9y agoI was responsible for a couple of those parents and I can tell you that's all nonsense. IBM employees are encouraged to patent _anything_, regardless of how useless or silly it may be.
- Cyph0n 9y agoIsn't that kind of the best strategy? You -- as a corporation -- want to make investments for the future. Each patent is a possible income stream in the future if the technology behind the patent somehow becomes "big". So it makes sense to patent everything you can, just for the chance of one of them to go "big". Companies can't just spend money on research expecting no return, at least not for a long time. That's what academia is built to do.
- foreigner 9y agoNo I mean I saw some patents on downright silly stuff. Things completely unrelated to IBM's business or even tech. IBM just wants to wave that number around.