Tech and engineering firms were the most inventive patent winners across the U.S. last year—a year marked by growing tension with foreign nations racing to bring world-changing tech like artificial intelligence and space satellites to market.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reports that in 2022 there were nearly 160,000 assigned patents across the U.S. The USPTO grants a license to an individual or company to have a temporary monopoly of business on a specific product or service. Patent law has been used by companies for many decades to protect their intellectual property, including designs and devices, from competitors who might try to profit from stolen ideas.
ClickUp analyzed data from the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to identify the top earners in each state. This was based on the total number of assigned patents in the fiscal year 2022. This ran from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022.
The data was limited to assignees of regular utility patents as well as design patents, and only included assignees with at least 10 patents received in the past year. Alaska, Hawaii Maine Mississippi West Virginia did not have assignees meeting these criteria.
The private expenditure on research and developments by U.S. businesses has risen dramatically since the economic crisis of the late 2000s. According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, the total amount of research and development spending in 2020 is estimated at $531 billion.
Nine colleges and universities ranked first in 2022 for filing patents in their states, including Johns Hopkins University, a prestigious university in Maryland. Last year’s top earners of patents were overwhelmingly private companies.
See who won the rights to the latest tech in your state.
