[arron61]

R&D != patents. The number of patents generated by a company is really based on the system employed within the company and not about how innovative the company is. Most software patents are bogus and if your company is set up with a great system to file patents quickly then you will get a lot of them. For example in my company, your performance is based on how many patents are filed. Additionally they have an entire team of lawyers that take any one page description of text and turn them into patentable items. The team of lawyers write the patent, do the research on prior patents, and will then file the patent for us.

It's a great patent filing system and it generates A LOT of patents, but the company is definitely not innovative.

Most other companies that are less keen on such a system will not file these bogus and broad patents.