Yeah. Unfortunately it's a nontrivial source of revenue. In 2018 they sued Groupon for $167m and got $83m. Interesting quotes from an article [0] reporting on

Yeah. Unfortunately it's a nontrivial source of revenue. In 2018 they sued Groupon for $167m and got $83m. Interesting quotes from an article [0] reporting on it include: > In 2017 IBM generated about $1.2 billion in revenue from its licensing activities. > An IBM licensing executive testified that Amazon, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter have each paid IBM $20 million to $50 million as part of cross-licensing deals that gave them access to the patent portfolio. > IBM lawyer John Desmarais told jurors the company had no choice but to sue after Groupon refused to take responsibility for using IBM’s foundational technology. > “The verdict is a vindication for IBM’s licensing program,” Desmarais said by phone. It looks like they've been at it for a while, too. They sued Amazon in 2006 [1]. Quotes from that reporting: > IBM alleges that Amazon.com knowingly exploits its intellectual property by infringing on several patents that cover, among other things, the presentation of applications in an interactive service, the storage of data in an interactive network, the presentation of advertising in an interactive service, and the ordering of items from an electronic catalog. While doing some digging, I stumbled across this [2] super interesting scoop on how IBM views and remunerates successful patent-applicant-employees, from 2001. Makes sense to give out bonuses for patents, when they weaponize them this way. Gross. :/ [0]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ibm-groupon-lawsuit-idUSKBN1KH2CL https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ibm-groupon-lawsuit-idUSK... [1]: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2547652/ibm-sues-amazon-com-over-patents.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2547652/ibm-sues-amazo... [2]: https://www.eetimes.com/ees-want-a-bigger-piece-of-patent-royalty-pie/ https://www.eetimes.com/ees-want-a-bigger-piece-of-patent-ro...