California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2019, with 153,253 patents from 67,890 inventors across 741 cities. On a per-capita basis that is 3.9 patents per 1,000 residents, a standard benchmark for comparing state-level R&D intensity.
Top Cities in California 2019
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 16,308 | 6,652 |
| #2 | San Francisco, CA | 15,664 | 6,446 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 13,199 | 4,733 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 6,821 | 3,108 |
| #5 | Mountain View, CA | 5,938 | 2,719 |
| #6 | Palo Alto, CA | 5,329 | 2,240 |
| #7 | Santa Clara, CA | 4,471 | 2,019 |
| #8 | Fremont, CA | 4,365 | 1,894 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 3,988 | 1,624 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 3,004 | 1,641 |
| #11 | Irvine, CA | 2,459 | 1,181 |
| #12 | Los Altos, CA | 2,321 | 907 |
| #13 | Redwood City, CA | 2,250 | 1,104 |
| #14 | Saratoga, CA | 2,173 | 728 |
| #15 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,901 | 882 |
| #16 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,864 | 683 |
| #17 | San Mateo, CA | 1,677 | 829 |
| #18 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,661 | 704 |
| #19 | Oakland, CA | 1,610 | 804 |
| #20 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,519 | 576 |
| #21 | Berkeley, CA | 1,331 | 684 |
| #22 | San Ramon, CA | 1,291 | 558 |
| #23 | Campbell, CA | 1,280 | 496 |
| #24 | Santa Monica, CA | 1,219 | 535 |
| #25 | Milpitas, CA | 1,185 | 588 |