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LOS ANGELES, October 26, 2005 – Stating that the research and development derived from HRL Laboratories may well drive the entire industry to new levels of innovation, the Patent Scorecard, ranked the Malibu-based research facility 17th out of over 400 companies in the ratings released today.
The Patent Scorecard, from ipIQ, (Intellectual Property. Intelligence Quotient) rates corporate innovation and uses a series of indicators to evaluate patent quality, technological strength, and breadth of impact. It has historically been published in MIT's Technology Review and tracks the U.S. patent portfolios of more than 2500 of the world's top technology firms. Rather than ranking strictly on numbers of patents issued, the Scorecard uses proprietary tools to assess the quality of the patents and the innovation capabilities of the companies.
In elevating HRL Laboratories 22 positions from last year's rankings and terming HRL a "Significant Mover" in the Industrial Equipment & Materials industry, the Patent Scorecard cited HRL's excellence in two prime rating categories: Science Linkage "and Current Impact Index". The former reflects the core science referenced in a company's U.S. patents "[which] indicates a company closer to the cutting edge than its competitors with lower values." HRL rated six times higher than the industry average, and four times higher than the industry leader.
The Current Impact Index highlights the broader significance of a company's patents by examining how often its U.S. patents are used as the basis for other innovation in the current year. HRL's patents were referenced over 80 percent more often than the industry average.
The Scorecard, in listing trends of the industry, headlined HRL Laboratories as "A Company of Excellence Emerges." The industry-high Science Linkage and Current Impact Index were even more impressive, it noted in summary, considering that 75 percent of all their patents have been issued since 2003. Finally, "The research and development derived form this company may well drive this industry to new levels of innovation."
The Patent Scorecard 2006 is available at www.ipIQ.com.
HRL Laboratories, LLC is a corporate R&D laboratory owned by Boeing, General Motors, and Raytheon. HRL provides custom R&D and performs additional R&D contract services for its three LLC Members, for the U.S. government, and for other commercial entities###