California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2016, with 129,006 patents from 57,791 inventors across 713 cities. On a per-capita basis that is 3.3 patents per 1,000 residents, a standard benchmark for comparing state-level R&D intensity.
Top Cities in California 2016
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 13,841 | 5,790 |
| #2 | San Francisco, CA | 12,858 | 4,702 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 11,375 | 4,446 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 5,733 | 2,581 |
| #5 | Palo Alto, CA | 4,764 | 2,001 |
| #6 | Mountain View, CA | 4,621 | 2,129 |
| #7 | Fremont, CA | 3,817 | 1,686 |
| #8 | Cupertino, CA | 3,741 | 1,508 |
| #9 | Santa Clara, CA | 3,684 | 1,581 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 2,195 | 1,225 |
| #11 | Los Altos, CA | 2,194 | 864 |
| #12 | Irvine, CA | 2,161 | 1,024 |
| #13 | Saratoga, CA | 1,955 | 660 |
| #14 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,845 | 658 |
| #15 | Redwood City, CA | 1,798 | 882 |
| #16 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,705 | 770 |
| #17 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,345 | 602 |
| #18 | San Mateo, CA | 1,254 | 614 |
| #19 | Oakland, CA | 1,194 | 610 |
| #20 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,143 | 504 |
| #21 | Campbell, CA | 1,101 | 423 |
| #22 | San Ramon, CA | 1,090 | 475 |
| #23 | Berkeley, CA | 1,003 | 512 |
| #24 | Milpitas, CA | 922 | 448 |
| #25 | Santa Cruz, CA | 875 | 358 |