Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is beefing up its patent holdings in the United States, a move that may help avoid the pitfalls that bedevilled Google Inc, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc ahead of their initial public offerings (IPOs).
China's largest e-commerce company has so far obtained 102 US patents, including 20 purchased from International Business Machines Corp (IBM) last year, according to researcher Envision IP.
Alibaba has applications on more than 300 others for technology such as payment processing, product recommendations and picture searches, the US Patent and Trademark Office's database shows.
"It's a smart move," said Maulin Shah, managing director of New York-based Envision. "When a company announces IPO plans, they instantly become a target from competitors already in the market who want to hamper the IPO or those who see it as an opportunity to exploit the company at a vulnerable time."
Source: BTPremium
