For 29 years, IBM has been the American market leader in terms of patents obtained every year. In 2021, the company received almost 8,700 of them, nearly as much as the following two companies on the list combined (2. Samsung Electronics – 6,400; 3. Canon – 3,000). IBM Software Lab Poland, based in Krakow, has a significant share of this.

IBM Software Lab Poland has been operating since the end of 2005 and employs over 400 engineers. The breakthrough came in 2016 when it began to specialize in data analytics solutions thanks to his high-skill assessment, following the acquisition by IBM of Netezza, which operated in this area. Since then, it has been developing tools primarily to support AI, ML, data governance, and security, cooperating with other IBM Software Labs worldwide, including in San Jose in the USA (headquarters), Toronto in Canada, Germany, and China. Effects? In 2021, IBM Software Lab Poland submitted several hundred patent applications to the US market, of which there are approximately 200 solutions in the area of ​​algorithms and problem-solving approaches, mainly in AI and ML, in the patenting process.

– We recruit employers mainly from Krakow universities: AGH, Jagiellonian University, and the Krakow University of Technology. Foreigners from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other countries account for only 16-17% of personnel – said Sławomir Kumka, managing leader of IBM Software Lab Poland. – We work best with AGH, where after the sixth semester of studies, our employees give lectures on database management, ML, and IBM technology, including the programming of quantum computers. We also got interested in the last topic of Secondary School No. 1 in Krakow, where one of the classes acquired knowledge in this field from the first year of study. No wonder the average age of our employees is around 30 years, with a very low (single-digit) turnover, with the number of women rising from 5% in 2016 to 19.5% now. It is worth adding that IBM Software Lab Poland boasts one of the highest rates of patent applications per employee. It currently amounts to one entry for every two Laboratory employees, placing it at the top of the list of all IBM Software Labs worldwide.

Finally, here are some examples of patent applications of the Polish branch of IBM from 2021:

• Method of identifying potential re-configuration of containerized products running on container-orchestration systems

• Extended flexible vulnerable software discovery matching based on publicly available CVE data and alias database
• Method and System for filesystem events loss avoidance across system reboots for reliable real-time legitimate and blacklisted software discovery
• Dynamic Semantic Network Expert System teaching based on a list of steps inputs for particular cases, i.e. diagnosis medical/it, problem resolution/.