California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2018, with 129,631 patents from 60,411 inventors across 708 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 2018
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 14,037 | 5,991 |
| #2 | San Francisco, CA | 13,015 | 5,438 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 10,945 | 4,341 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 5,444 | 2,644 |
| #5 | Mountain View, CA | 4,817 | 2,331 |
| #6 | Palo Alto, CA | 4,445 | 1,983 |
| #7 | Fremont, CA | 3,646 | 1,677 |
| #8 | Santa Clara, CA | 3,533 | 1,667 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 3,436 | 1,457 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 2,468 | 1,396 |
| #11 | Los Altos, CA | 2,039 | 817 |
| #12 | Irvine, CA | 1,969 | 1,040 |
| #13 | Redwood City, CA | 1,937 | 991 |
| #14 | Saratoga, CA | 1,919 | 666 |
| #15 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,707 | 626 |
| #16 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,651 | 789 |
| #17 | Oakland, CA | 1,399 | 714 |
| #18 | San Mateo, CA | 1,364 | 707 |
| #19 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,361 | 575 |
| #20 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,349 | 626 |
| #21 | San Ramon, CA | 1,176 | 481 |
| #22 | Campbell, CA | 1,118 | 435 |
| #23 | Berkeley, CA | 1,039 | 560 |
| #24 | Santa Monica, CA | 939 | 449 |
| #25 | Milpitas, CA | 934 | 477 |