The move by I.B.M. does carry business risks. Patents typically take three or four years after filing to be approved by the patent office. Companies often try to keep patent applications private for as long as possible, to try to hide their technical intentions from rivals.

"Competitors will know years ahead in some cases what fields we're working on," said John Kelly, senior vice president for technology and intellectual property at I.B.M. "We've decided we'll take that risk and seek our competitive advantage elsewhere."

You mean they plan to make money by competing? How unusual. Perhaps the company is run by engineers and not lawyers?