While IBM's Patents Fell 76%, Its AI Patents Grew 57% — and Became Its #2 Category

IBM losing its 29-year run atop the US patent leaderboard in 2022 is already well covered — the company's own shift away from chasing patent volume, and the resulting drop from #1, has been widely reported. What's less discussed is what's underneath that topline number: broken down by technology area, IBM's granted-patent collapse wasn't uniform at all. Most categories fell by 80% or more. One — AI and machine learning — did the opposite, growing through the entire decline and quietly becoming IBM's second-largest granted-patent category by 2023. This post looks only at granted patents (not applications) and breaks the numbers down by CPC class to show exactly where that split happened.

The one category that didn't follow the script

IBM's grant count moved in a tight band for six straight years — 8,021 in 2016 up to a 9,209 peak in 2019, still 8,673 in 2021 — before falling to 4,394 in 2022, then 3,653, then 2,449, then 2,191 by 2025: a 76% decline from the 2019 peak, tracking IBM's own 2020 statement that it would stop chasing raw patent volume in favor of higher-value filings (grant timelines run 2-3 years behind filing, so 2022 is exactly when that shift would start showing up in grants). Breaking that decline down by primary CPC class (each patent's first-listed, and therefore dominant, classification) shows it wasn't spread evenly — and one category ignored the trend entirely. Hover the chart for exact values per year.

• G06N (AI / machine learning) is the exception to everything else on this chart. It grew almost every year through 2023 (147 → 431, +193%) even as the topline total was cut in half, and while every other top category was falling. By 2023 it had overtaken both H04L and H01L to become IBM's second-largest granted-patent category — a title it still holds in 2025.
• G06F (computing/software) is still IBM's largest category by a wide margin — but it's down 80%, from about 4,100/year through 2018 to 801 by 2025. It alone accounts for nearly half of IBM's decade total.
• H01L (semiconductor devices) had the sharpest fall of any major category: −91%. IBM held 1,176-1,298 grants a year through 2016-2020, then semiconductor patenting fell off a cliff — 374 in 2022, 113 by 2025. This tracks IBM's well-publicized retreat from leading-edge chip manufacturing (the 2021 spin-off of its Microelectronics unit and shift toward chip research/licensing rather than fabrication).
• H04L (digital communication) fell 82%, from a 1,275 peak in 2018 to 232 by 2025 — proportionally similar to the semiconductor decline, just starting from a smaller base.
• G06Q (business methods) actually rose through 2021 (267 → 470) before falling back to 90 by 2025 — the only category with a genuine mid-decade peak rather than a straight decline.

The four biggest movers

Full annual breakdown, top 10 CPC classes

The bottom row is the true topline (all CPC classes, not just the top 10) — it's the 76% decline in one number. The rows above it show where that decline concentrated and where it didn't.