Cisco reaches 10,000 patents in the United States

In fiscal year 2012, Cisco allocated a total of 5.5 billion dollars to R&D (12 percent of global revenues). The company has 21 R&D centers distributed throughout the world and more than 25,000 engineers that develop new solutions and technologies.

When last July 2 Culm It patented a technology developed by engineers Kathleen McMurry, David Butt, Steve Levy and Dave Novice that allows the network to indicate precisely and easily the presence of a user to facilitate communication with others regardless of the device used, the company reached its number 10,000 patent.

It was in 1988 when Cisco registered his first patent, and in 1992 when the first patent was published on an innovative Routing protocol (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) to facilitate communication between computers, the same year in which he began to talk about something called World Wide Web.

From then to the more than 13,000 patents of the company approved today worldwide, the history of innovation of Cisco has been forging the main technological transitions of the last 30 years: from multiple patents of routing, switching and networks to support the evolution of the Internet, to unified communications of voice, data and video and technologies of safety and mobility or data central/cloud, keys to help organizations to organizations. Take advantage of the new era of the internet of Everything.

Strategic differentiator

Cisco is one of the companies that allocates innovation at global scale according to the IEEE agency, becoming an important strategic differentiator that has allowed him to maintain leadership in most technological sectors in which he competes.

In fiscal year 2012, Cisco allocated a total of 5.5 billion dollars to R&D (12 percent of global revenues), more than any of its competitors. This innovation strategy, endorsed by 21 R&D centers distributed throughout the world and more than 25,000 engineers that develop new solutions and technologies, is based on three pillars.

On the one hand, organic innovation through extensive ecosystem to ideas, including internal programs (Tech Radar, Izone), External Competitions (IPRize) and collaboration with clients, universities and entrepreneurs around the world.

On the other hand, Cisco has implanted a culture that encourages and rewards innovation, through dedicated funds (Technology Fund) and prestigious competitions (Pioneer Awards).

Finally, the different acquisitions, investments in other companies and collaboration agreements, have accelerated the design of innovative solutions and services for end customers (Cisco has acquired more than 150 companies that have contributed about 2,500 patents).

This is how about 75 percent of Cisco patents have been generated internally, and more than 2,300 current employees of the company are responsible for one or more in different categories (Routing, Switching, Wireless, Security, Collaboration, Video, Data Center/Cloud, Energy Management, etc.). Of these, ten inventors are under 30 years (the youngest is 27 years old) and other more veteran engineers such as Dave Ward or JP Vasseur are part of the ‘elite 100’ (who exceed 100 approved patents).

PANKAJ PATEL, Executive Vice President and Development Director at Cisco, stressed that “the ability to anticipate and lead market transitions through a constant commitment to innovation is the DNA of our success and that of our clients. Although we are proud to overcome the goal of 10,000 patents in the United States, the important thing is not their number, but the benefits they generate for customers to constitute the base of really innovative designs such as Swit. Catalyst, ISR routers, telepressure solutions, UCs servers or collaboration tools such as Webex ”.