Constituent Company Whirlpool Corp
NASDAQ CM: WHR
Website: www.whirlpoolcorp.com
Industry Sector: Consumer Discretionary
Average IPQ® Score: 100
Yesterday, Whirlpool Corporation announced their 6th year of inclusion in the Ocean Tomo 300® Patent Index. We are pleased to recognize the company’s continued inclusion in the Index and congratulate them on 100 years of innovation.
Whirlpool Corporation, the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, reported annual sales of more than $18 billion in 2010, 71,000 employees, and 66 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world. The U.S. issued patents in Whirlpool’s portfolio have an average IPQ score* of 100.
An excerpt from the news release:
“Inclusion in the Ocean Tomo 300 list shows Whirlpool’s innovation activity is generating a significant portfolio of intellectual property,” said Jeff M. Fettig, Whirlpool Corporation’s chairman and CEO.
“Having just celebrated our 100th anniversary, Whirlpool Corporation understands the importance of being on this prestigious index. It demonstrates our commitment to developing innovations that provide unique and compelling solutions for consumers and creating strong intellectual property rights associated with these innovations to help Whirlpool deliver positive results to our stakeholders.”
This month, the company is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. Take a moment to reflect on a bit of Whirlpool’s 100 years of innovation:
- 1911 – Upton Machine Company is founded by Lou and Emory Upton to produce electric motor-driven wringer washers.
- 1938 – Whirlpool Corporation (then the Nineteen Hundred Corporation) invents the first washer with motorized agitation, ushering in a new era of time savings and convenience.
- 1947 – Amana (then the Raytheon Company) invents the first microwave oven called “Radarange”.
- 1950 – Aligning with its new Whirlpool® brand push, the Nineteen Hundred Corporation is renamed Whirlpool Corporation.
- 1954 – Amana patents the first self-defrost refrigerator.
- 1960 – Whirlpool wins NASA contract to design and build America’s first experimental “space kitchen”; the company builds other food, waste and hygiene systems used in the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab space missions.
- 1968 – The Elisha Gray II Research & Engineering Center is completed, giving Whirlpool the largest and most comprehensive applied research facility in the home appliance industry.
- 1998 – Whirlpool launches Resource Saver®, the industry’s first energy and water efficient top loading washer.
- 2000 – Proclaiming “Innovation will come from everywhere and everyone, and when we are successful, every job at Whirlpool will change,” CEO Dave Whitman marshals Whirlpool Corporation to further invest in its people by selecting a vanguard of 75 global employees to learn innovation methodologies and bring them back to their home regions.
- 2005 – Whirlpool ranked in BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Innovative Companies in the World.
Whirlpool celebrates its 100th anniversary.
View the entire “Whirlpool Corporation: 100 Years at a Glance”
*IPQ Scores: IPQ scores objectively rate patent assets based on a proven statistical methodology. The IPQ score has a median of 100. Patent assets with higher IPQ scores are statistically more likely to generate economic returns. Learn more about IPQ scores.
Image: © Whirlpool Corporation