Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025

Cary, NC ranks #70 worldwide for total patents filed in 2018, with 1,480 patents from 642 inventors. Leading employers of inventors based in Cary, NC include IBM, Lenovo (Singapore) Pte., Cisco. That works out to 8.5 patents per 1,000 residents, a common benchmark for comparing regional innovation intensity.

Showing 1–50 of 642 inventors

Rank Inventor Primary Company Patents
1 Martin G. Keen IBM 40
2 Aaron K. Baughman IBM 38
3 Brian M. O'Connell IBM 35
#4 Andrew R. Freed IBM 33
#5 John Carl Mese Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 31
#6 Carlos M. Pignataro Cisco 27
#7 Lisa M. Bradley IBM 25
#8 Jianbang Zhang Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 18
#9 Trudy L. Hewitt IBM 17
#10 John Weldon Nicholson Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 15
#10 Robert Paul Morris Sitting Man 15
#10 Qing Gong Byd Company Limited 15
#13 Jenny S. Li IBM 13
#14 Nataraj Nagaratnam IBM 11
#15 Bernadette A. Carter IBM 10
#15 Song Wang 10
#17 Cuong Huy Truong Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 9
#17 John H. Yoakum Avaya 9
#17 Scott Edwards Kelso Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 9
#20 Yan Xu Magic Leap 8
#21 James Michael Ferris IBM 7
#21 Richard Redpath IBM 7
#21 Henry Gabriel Victor Bequet Sas Institute 7
#21 Michael C. Brundage Emc Ip Holding Company 7
#25 Matthew G. Marum IBM 6
#25 Scott Wentao Li Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 6
#25 Ajay Dholakia IBM 6
#25 Michael James Leonard Sas Institute 6
#25 David W. Sherrer Nuvotronics 6
#25 William L. Dungan Cree 6
#25 Lisa M. Bradley 6
#25 Qingchun Zhang Cree 6
#25 Howard Locker Lenovo (United States) 6
#34 Franky So Motorola 5
#34 Juan F. Vargas IBM 5
#34 Sumeet Kochar 5
#34 Ashish Jha The Clorox 5
#34 Zhihang Zhang Futurewei Technologies 5
#34 Bradley Park Strazisar Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 5
#34 Kevin R. Stalter 5
#34 Srinivasan Ramani IBM 5
#34 Richard J. Schuman Hill-Rom Services 5
#34 Timothy Winthrop Kingsbury Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 5
#34 Daniel Everett Jemiolo IBM 5
#34 Rui Zhang IBM 5
#34 Robert H. Hart Bioptigen 5
#34 John Williams Palmour Cree 5
#34 Brett Olsson IBM 5
#34 Magnus Mortensen Cisco 5
#34 Michael J. Whitney IBM 5

Part of North Carolina