California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2017, with 135,034 patents from 60,394 inventors across 723 cities. On a per-capita basis that is 3.4 patents per 1,000 residents, a standard benchmark for comparing state-level R&D intensity.
Top Cities in California 2017
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 14,180 | 5,952 |
| #2 | San Francisco, CA | 13,168 | 5,107 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 11,729 | 4,582 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 5,811 | 2,660 |
| #5 | Mountain View, CA | 4,843 | 2,209 |
| #6 | Palo Alto, CA | 4,672 | 2,029 |
| #7 | Fremont, CA | 3,894 | 1,740 |
| #8 | Santa Clara, CA | 3,748 | 1,709 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 3,637 | 1,468 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 2,598 | 1,427 |
| #11 | Los Altos, CA | 2,230 | 841 |
| #12 | Irvine, CA | 2,163 | 1,054 |
| #13 | Saratoga, CA | 1,961 | 665 |
| #14 | Redwood City, CA | 1,923 | 957 |
| #15 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,771 | 660 |
| #16 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,597 | 740 |
| #17 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,435 | 558 |
| #18 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,373 | 613 |
| #19 | Oakland, CA | 1,349 | 692 |
| #20 | San Mateo, CA | 1,310 | 668 |
| #21 | Campbell, CA | 1,251 | 457 |
| #22 | San Ramon, CA | 1,131 | 465 |
| #23 | Berkeley, CA | 1,047 | 534 |
| #24 | Milpitas, CA | 1,038 | 521 |
| #25 | Santa Monica, CA | 997 | 486 |