How many U.S. patents have been granted to the following companies
over the past 5 years?  I just need the total number for each company.
- IBM
- Hewlett Packard
- Silicon Graphics

Thanks!

Hi matt2:

In the period between 11/05/1997 and 11/05/2002, the three companies
have been granted the following number of patents:

IBM: 14,815
Hewlett Packard: 4,745
Silicon Graphics: 375

These figures were found by using the advanced search facility 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-adv.htm

at the U.S. Patent Office.

The appropriate search strings are:

an/"international business machines" AND isd/11/5/1997->11/5/2002
an/"hewlett packard" AND isd/11/5/1997->11/5/2002
an/"silicon graphics" AND isd/11/5/1997->11/5/2002

I hope this information is of help to you.    
   
If you need any clarification of the information I have provided,
please ask using the Clarification feature and provide me with
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allow me to provide you with clarification(s) *before* you rate this
answer.
               
Thank you.                
               
websearcher-ga

perfect.  exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks!