Two different organizations that track the quality and quantity of companies’ patent portfolios recently gave their top ranking to Microsoft, a position historically held by hardware leaders such as IBM and HP.

The November 2007 issue of IEEE Spectrum, a publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), ranked Microsoft the IP leader among all technology companies, based on 2006 U.S. patent awards, up from the seventh position a year earlier. In addition, the Patent Board, a leading independent provider of patent metrics, ranked Microsoft’s patent portfolio number one in Technology Strength in their January 2008 Scorecard for the Information Technology (IT) industry, up from second place a year earlier.

Microsoft currently has more than 8,500 issued U.S. patents, with more than 15,000 more pending. Microsoft’s portfolio continues to grow at a higher rate than most companies in the top 25 of patent issuers, and was one of only five in the top 25 to receive more patents in 2007 than in 2006.

PressPass spoke with Bart Eppenauer, chief patent counsel and associate general counsel at Microsoft, and the individual responsible for the oversight of Microsoft’s Patent Portfolio, about how the company accomplished its rise to the top of these two IP rankings and what this means for the company and the industry going forward.

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