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 in order to determine the highest-earning patent holders in each state. The number of patents awarded in fiscal year 2022 (which ran from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022) for the Patent Office was used.
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.
Since the economic recession of the late 2000s, the private spending on R&D by U.S. firms has increased dramatically. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics estimates that in 2020 the amount will reach $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, the vast majority of the top-earning patents were from private organizations.
Find out who in your state won the rights for the latest technology last year.
