Company
IBM		5561/1	4580/1	2927	2101	1.90	2.18	0.97	1.25	5.6	5.9
NEC		2413/2	1794/2	2117	1390	1.14	1.29	0.72	0.72	4.9	5.0
Hewlett-Packard		1576/3	1124/4	1044	653	1.51	1.72	0.85	1.38	6.1	6.5
Fujitsu		1496/4	1452/3	1236	1052	1.21	1.38	0.55	0.67	6.0	5.7
Compaq Computer		1133/5	991/6	426	354	2.66	2.80	1.19	1.18	4.6	5.8
Hon Hai		1112/6	55/20	397	37	2.80	1.47	0.00	0.00	4.1	5.1
Sun Microsystems		1109/7	747/7	468	266	2.37	2.81	2.07	1.80	4.8	4.3
Microsoft		1028/8	721/8	357	211	2.88	3.42	3.07	2.18	4.3	4.5
Cisco Systems		911/9	123/19	133	25	6.85	4.94	1.15	0.90	5.8	4.9
Xerox		659/10	999/5	573	662	1.15	1.51	1.09	0.97	7.0	6.5
Seiko Epson		569/11	365/11	409	242	1.39	1.51	1.27	0.82	7.0	7.2
3Com		509/12	158/16	178	48	2.86	3.28	0.38	0.76	4.7	5.2
Ricoh		473/13	477/10	438	367	1.08	1.30	0.33	0.35	5.8	5.8
Seagate Technology		472/14	226/13	295	125	1.60	1.81	1.11	0.63	6.8	6.4
OKI Electric		354/15	162/15	290	130	1.22	1.25	0.28	0.60	5.0	5.1
Dell Computer		266/16	246/12	94	88	2.83	2.81	0.06	0.10	4.9	4.8
NCR		233/17	225/14	142	137	1.64	1.65	0.49	0.67	7.5	6.6
EMC		210/18	157/17	87	45	2.41	3.51	1.33	1.77	5.4	5.5
Apple Computer		208/19	494/9	91	184	2.29	2.69	0.87	1.41	6.1	5.2
Unova		194/20	144/18	123	66	1.58	2.19	0.57	0.15	8.8	7.9

*average

Indexing Innovation

Technology Review has teamed with CHI Research of Haddon Heights, NJ, to produce the Patent Scorecard, an industry-by-industry ranking of corporate patent portfolios. CHI combines the number of a firm’s patents with other indicators to flesh out this deeper picture of innovation. Here are the specifics:

Technology Strength: This figure, the basis of the rankings, provides an overall assessment of a firm’s intellectual-property power. It is calculated by multiplying the number of a company’s U.S. patents by its Current Impact Index (see below).

Number of Patents: The total number of U.S. patents awarded, excluding design and other special-case inventions.

Current Impact Index: This measure showcases the broader significance of a company’s patents by examining how often its U.S. patents from the previous five years are cited as “prior art” in the current year’s batch. A value of 1.0 represents average citation frequency; so 1.4 would indicate a company’s patents were cited 40 percent more often than average, and so on.

Science Linkage: Patents sometimes cite scientific papers as prior art. This value shows the average number of science references listed in a company’s U.S. patents. A high figure indicates the company is closer to the cutting edge than its competitors.

Technology Cycle Time: An indicator of a firm’s speed in turning leading-edge technology into intellectual property, defined as the median age (in years) of the U.S. patents cited as prior art in the company’s patents.