East Fishkill, New York–For the eighth consecutive year, IBM has been awarded the most U.S. patents–with a record 2,886 issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2000.

IBM topped the next closest company by more than 850 patents. IBM also surpassed the combined total of patents awarded eight of its largest competitors–Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Oracle, and EMC.

The results were reported by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, which compiles the CLAIMS patent database and annually reports the number of U.S. patents issued to companies.

“In an industry driven by innovation, patent leadership demonstrates a commitment to developing technologies that benefit our customers and fuel IBM’s growth,” says Nicholas M. Donofrio, senior vice president, corporate technology and manufacturing. “The creativity of our technical teams is helping push the industry in new directions that are determining the next steps in e-business.”

Technology breakthroughs were patented in critical areas of IBM’s business during 2000–with nearly 1,000 patents awarded for software, about 1,000 for microelectronics, and 400 for storage technologies.

IBM holds nearly 34,000 patents worldwide, including about 19,000 in the U.S. In addition, the company is one of the largest non-European patent holders in Europe and one of the largest non-Japanese patent holders in Japan.