California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2020, with 155,812 patents from 68,989 inventors across 747 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 2020
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 16,876 | 6,906 |
| #2 | San Francisco, CA | 16,384 | 6,857 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 13,652 | 4,672 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 7,036 | 3,155 |
| #5 | Mountain View, CA | 5,869 | 2,745 |
| #6 | Palo Alto, CA | 5,227 | 2,277 |
| #7 | Santa Clara, CA | 4,886 | 2,109 |
| #8 | Fremont, CA | 4,520 | 1,978 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 4,038 | 1,575 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 3,383 | 1,794 |
| #11 | Redwood City, CA | 2,473 | 1,166 |
| #12 | Irvine, CA | 2,323 | 1,116 |
| #13 | Saratoga, CA | 2,167 | 693 |
| #14 | Los Altos, CA | 2,129 | 848 |
| #15 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,966 | 873 |
| #16 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,829 | 663 |
| #17 | San Mateo, CA | 1,750 | 875 |
| #18 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,704 | 689 |
| #19 | Oakland, CA | 1,701 | 860 |
| #20 | Berkeley, CA | 1,475 | 731 |
| #21 | Campbell, CA | 1,360 | 522 |
| #22 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,338 | 563 |
| #23 | Milpitas, CA | 1,273 | 611 |
| #24 | Santa Monica, CA | 1,206 | 524 |
| #25 | San Ramon, CA | 1,170 | 532 |