Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington, USA) moves up to the #1 spot this Patent Scorecard™ overtaking IBM (Armonk, New York, USA) which falls to 2^nd. Microsoft had strong increases in every indicator, with an increase of almost 13% in patent count and an 8% increase in Research Intensity™.   The company had a 17% increase in Science Strength™, which is almost ten times that of #2 IBM.   Microsoft has had a 111% increase in Science Strength™ over the past 5 years, indicating the importance of science in building its patent portfolio. IBM had a 13% decrease in patent count for the quarter, well below the 3.2% industry average increase. The company also has a 14% drop in the number of pending patent applications. An 8% decrease in Industry Impact™ helped fuel the company’s 20% decrease in overall Technology Strength™.

Oracle Corp. (Redwood City, California, USA) jumps up five spots to 3^rd after acquiring Sun Microsystems. The acquisition gave Oracle a 176% increase in patent count and a 106% increase in Science Strength™. This move dropped Hewlett-Packard Co. (Palo Alto, California, USA) one spot to 4^th, as the company had a 5% decrease in patent count. It will be interesting to see if the company’s$2.7 billion acquisition of 3Com, scheduled for late April 2010, can move it back up the rankings in the coming months.