Yahoo! leads Amazon, Google and eBay, in patents at least
Despite all the noise made by Amazon's one click patent, Yahoo!, with 707 patents and applications filed, has pursued a far more aggressive patenting strategy than Amazon, eBay or Google. These figures include patents subsequently acquired by the major companies through acquisitions.
Google's intellectual property estate includes sixteen facial recognition patents assigned to it as a result of the acquisition of Neven Vision Inc and nine patents acquired in late 2005 from the Disney-owned Infoseek Corporation.
The largest external portfolios acquired by Google were a group of 26 patents and applications acquired from Dmarc Broadcasting Inc, a developer of digital audio systems and related services for radio broadcasters acquired by Google in 2006, and thirty patents acquired as the result of the purchase of Adscape Media Inc from The Wall Street Journal. Adscape sold software that integrates ad placement in games.
Curiously, Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon's founder is listed as the sole or a joint investor on 17 of Amazon's 121 patents. Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, by comparison are listed as inventors on six and two respectively of Google's 536 patents.
Total patents and applications filed byAmazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo
Patents and applications filed at the USPTO by Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo since 2000. The chart includes patents assigned to the company as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
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