IBM's patent portfolio is very diverse, and includes one of the latest break-through technologies such as a techniques for reducing energy consumption in the cloud environment, and the set of algorithms that mimic the way human brain works to learn new information.
IBM spends more than 6 billion dollars each year on its R&D department. According to IFI, IBM is investing heavily in its R&D because it has to stay on top of European and Asian companies which tend to use their investment in IP more extensively. The other reason for IBM to invest into IP so heavily is the long-term vision of its potential. IBM designs the patents that are not yet ready to be developed in the current state of the market, but in the future, when the market is ready, it will have all the capabilities to own the technology that is in the high demand at a time.
IBM obviously successfully shifted its business model from an electronic manufacturer into company that mainly focusing on business computing service, data management and most importantly, R&D on different novel technologies. It's pretty silent from the public media, but anyone who knows high tech industries will agree that IBM is definitely a powerhouse in R&D.
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