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Leading the list of Mass High Tech’s ranking of top patent holders in New England tech companies, Xerox Corp. won just shy of triple the number of patents as the No. 2 company.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based document technology maker won 502 patents in the first nine months of 2009, well ahead of No. 2, Hopkinton-based EMC Corp., which was awarded 169. Many patent filings can suggest two tactics, according to David Olson, assistant professor at Boston College Law School specializing in intellectual property and antitrust law. Filing lots of patents may be a defensive stance to prevent others from suing for infringement. It could also be an offensive strategy, “to discourage people from entering the market,” Olson said.
Historically, patent filings stay flat or increase slightly during an economic downturn, said Olson. Companies want to make sure they have plenty of patents ahead of a recovery. But the current recession may turn out to be unique in that regard — patents don’t come free.
“It’s been a deep enough, long enough, bad enough recession that companies want to make sure they have enough cash on hand,” Olson said.
Olson has heard anecdotal evidence of life sciences companies, in particular, scaling back patent activity to save cash amid the recession, and noted their scarcity on the list. Only Covidien plc, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Massachusetts General Hospital and Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. cracked the top 30.
One doesn’t necessarily think of the elevator industry when they think about innovation, but Farmington, Conn.-based Otis Elevator Co. comes in at No. 20 with 28 patents filed through September. Olson said the company is clearly innovating, but the high number of patents also speaks to the way the company has built and maintained dominance in its industry.
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