• On MovieTome: See the TRAILER for TERMINATOR 4!

October 13, 2004 3:27 PM PDT

Big Blue's chip chief takes up IP helm

John Kelly, the executive who led IBM's microprocessor work, has taken a new post in charge of technology direction and intellectually property issues at the company.

IBM is centralizing and elevating its efforts to oversee intellectual property matters such as patents and copyrights, and Kelly will lead the effort, spokesman Tim Blair said on Wednesday.

"The organization is being formed within the corporation right now," Blair said. "We've had heads of intellectual property for some time, just not at a senior vice president level."

Kelly also will oversee technology leadership efforts such as the IBM Academy, a group that tries to anticipate the most promising directions for future product development, Blair said.

Kelly had headed up IBM's technology group, the organization in charge of microprocessor design and manufacturing. In January, the group combined with the server unit led by Bill Zeitler, who remains in charge of the combined group.

Intellectual property matters are of major importance to IBM, the computing company that consistently secures the most patents each year. Rivals such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are accelerating their patent efforts.

But patents are a balancing act for IBM, in part because of its embrace of open-source software, whose advocates are often critical of software patents. At the same time that Big Blue earns substantial revenue each year from licensing its patents, it also has made decisions such as a pledge not to sue if it finds patent infringement in the Linux kernel.

See more CNET content tagged:
patent, IBM Corp., intellectual property, microprocessor, IP

Add a Comment (Log in or register) 2 comments
Learning from SCO?
by zaznet October 13, 2004 7:23 PM PDT
I guess they are learning from the patent suits being filed against them by the likes of SCO. Now they will take the same approach against other companies who re-invented IBM's wheel...
Reply to this comment
IP security
by Ipod Apple May 16, 2007 2:26 PM PDT
http://www.analogstereo.com/mercedes_g_class_owners_manual.htm
Reply to this comment
Powered by Jive Software
advertisement

Latest tech news headlines

RSS Feeds

Add headlines from CNET News to your homepage or feedreader.

More feeds available in our RSS feed index.

advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right