Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025

Cary, NC ranks #60 worldwide for total patents filed in 2017, with 1,603 patents from 700 inventors. Leading employers of inventors based in Cary, NC include IBM, Lenovo (Singapore) Pte., Cisco. That works out to 9.2 patents per 1,000 residents, a common benchmark for comparing regional innovation intensity.

Showing 1–50 of 700 inventors

Rank Inventor Primary Company Patents
1 Brian M. O'Connell IBM 44
2 Martin G. Keen IBM 34
3 Andrew R. Freed IBM 25
#4 John Carl Mese Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 21
#5 Carlos M. Pignataro Cisco 19
#5 Nataraj Nagaratnam IBM 19
#5 Aaron K. Baughman IBM 19
#8 Jenny S. Li IBM 17
#9 Trudy L. Hewitt IBM 16
#10 Scott Edwards Kelso Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 14
#10 Bernadette A. Carter IBM 14
#10 Lisa M. Bradley IBM 14
#13 Howard Locker Lenovo (United States) 13
#13 John Weldon Nicholson Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 13
#15 Jianbang Zhang Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 12
#16 Brett Olsson IBM 9
#16 Qingchun Zhang Cree 9
#18 Kevin B. Haverlock IBM 8
#18 Li Qi Abb Schweiz Ag 8
#18 John H. Yoakum Avaya 8
#18 Garrett M. Drapala IBM 8
#18 Juan F. Vargas IBM 8
#18 Tiia Salo IBM 8
#18 Ajit Jariwala IBM 8
#18 James Michael Ferris IBM 8
#26 Srinivasan Ramani IBM 7
#26 Richard Redpath IBM 7
#26 Albert A. Chung IBM 7
#26 Robert L. Fair 7
#26 Yan Xu Magic Leap 7
#26 Stephen J. Kenna IBM 7
#26 Song Wang 7
#26 David M. Ogle IBM 7
#26 Philip E. Hammer Agbiome 7
#35 Michael J. Whitney IBM 6
#35 Ravinder Devarajan Sas Institute 6
#35 Kyoung Min Lee Cj Cheiljedang 6
#35 David W. Sherrer Nuvotronics 6
#35 Matthew G. Marum IBM 6
#35 George P. DeCandio IBM 6
#35 Robert H. Hart Bioptigen 6
#35 Todd Michael Eischeid IBM 6
#35 Bart P. Reier Cree 6
#35 Alan L. Taylor Emc Ip Holding Company 6
#35 Zhenyuan Wang Abb Research 6
#35 Manmohan Singh Glaxosmithkline Biologicals Sa 6
#35 Jeffrey B. Sloyer IBM 6
#48 Xiaoming Feng Abb Research 5
#48 Lisa Hope Everdyke Sas Institute 5
#48 Mark E. Molander IBM 5

Part of North Carolina