It’s a remarkable winning streak. Recently, for the 27th consecutive year, IBM announced it had received more U.S. patents than any other company. What’s more, the total for 2019—9,262...

By James Daly The cliché often associated with breakthrough inventions imagines the moment of creative insight coming in a flash. As when Newton’s falling apple supposedly inspired his theory...

By Larry Greenemeier A common misconception about inventing is that it’s a trait a person is born with, like blue eyes. You either have the invention gene or you don’t. Not so, says IBM...

By Tim Race Sometimes a patentable idea is discovered by accident. Literally. Six years ago, while a doctoral student in computer science at the National University of La Plata, in Argentina,...

By Matt Hunter Sarbajit Rakshit’s path to becoming an inventor started with a universal desire: to impress his father, a mathematics teacher in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. While working as...

By Margaret Popper For IBM Fellow Chieko Asakawa, necessity was definitely the mother of invention. In 1982, as a new graduate of Otemon Gakuin University in Osaka, she was not thrilled by the...

By James Daly Corville Allen wants to take the mystery out of getting a patent. “It’s not hard—you’ve just got to know what you’re doing,” says Allen, a senior technical staff member...