 
A friend in need
The patent system is a friend to innovation: It's a message whose truth is a tough sell these days - particularly to the world's four million BlackBerry® users.
These users, many of them all but addicted to their wireless email service1, have had a front-row seat to a legal battle that has caused some to suggest the patent system is spinning "out of control."2 But the BlackBerry case, and related issues explored later in this article, are hardly the only challenges facing the patent system.
A more pressing problem is that the United States Patent and Trademark Office is overwhelmed with paperwork, "buckling under the weight of more than 600,000 backlogged [patent] applications," according to MIT's Technology Review magazine.3
This is all significant because the patent system, both in the United States and in other countries, lies at the heart of innovation. People and companies are willing to spend their time and money innovating in part because patent systems assure innovators they will get credit for their work. When a patent system is not functioning properly, many incentives to innovate disappear.
Perhaps no company understands the importance of a healthy patent system better than IBM, which has secured more patents than any other company for the last 13 years running. Promoting innovation, both within its own walls and out in the market, is a primary concern for IBM, and it is what drives the company's efforts to help correct the flaws in the patent system.
"I truly believe that intellectual property is now the currency or the differentiator in a knowledge-based society," says Dr. John Kelly III, Senior Vice President of Technology and Intellectual Property at IBM. "As you talk about innovation, you have to talk about intellectual property."
- Word Spy
- "Blackberry Picking," The New Yorker, Dec. 26, 2005
- "The Patent Office's Fix," Technology Review, Jan. 13, 2006
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