Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025

Rapid City, SD ranks #6,317 worldwide for total patents filed in 2016, with 14 patents from 11 inventors. Leading employers of inventors based in Rapid City, SD include South Dakota Board Of Regents, University Of Illinois, Amazon. That works out to 0.2 patents per 1,000 residents, a common benchmark for comparing regional innovation intensity.

Showing 1–11 of 11 inventors

Rank Inventor Primary Company Patents
1 David R. Salem South Dakota Board Of Regents 2
1 Zhengtao Zhu University Of Illinois 2
1 Haiping Hong South Dakota Board Of Regents 2
#4 Gregory J. Whalen Amazon 1
#4 Thomas J. Holmes Space Systems/Loral 1
#4 Joice S. Ruffing 1
#4 Stuart E. Fromm Depuy Mitek 1
#4 Paul Whalen General Mills 1
#4 Lori J. Groven Purdue Research Foundation 1
#4 Michael Joyce B9Creations 1
#4 Grant A. Crawford Intel 1

Part of South Dakota