California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed in 2021, with 147,055 patents from 66,859 inventors across 730 cities. On a per-capita basis that is 3.7 patents per 1,000 residents, a standard benchmark for comparing state-level R&D intensity.
Top Cities in California 2021
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Francisco, CA | 16,045 | 7,035 |
| #2 | San Jose, CA | 15,977 | 6,693 |
| #3 | San Diego, CA | 13,146 | 4,495 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 6,650 | 3,062 |
| #5 | Mountain View, CA | 5,361 | 2,642 |
| #6 | Palo Alto, CA | 4,814 | 2,152 |
| #7 | Santa Clara, CA | 4,596 | 2,083 |
| #8 | Fremont, CA | 4,209 | 1,880 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 3,768 | 1,477 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 3,242 | 1,742 |
| #11 | Irvine, CA | 2,318 | 1,142 |
| #12 | Redwood City, CA | 2,230 | 1,107 |
| #13 | Los Altos, CA | 1,936 | 775 |
| #14 | San Mateo, CA | 1,834 | 902 |
| #15 | Saratoga, CA | 1,831 | 618 |
| #16 | Menlo Park, CA | 1,761 | 805 |
| #17 | Oakland, CA | 1,722 | 882 |
| #18 | Los Gatos, CA | 1,620 | 619 |
| #19 | Pleasanton, CA | 1,504 | 623 |
| #20 | Berkeley, CA | 1,391 | 727 |
| #21 | Santa Monica, CA | 1,306 | 567 |
| #22 | Milpitas, CA | 1,243 | 626 |
| #23 | Campbell, CA | 1,229 | 478 |
| #24 | Carlsbad, CA | 1,174 | 516 |
| #25 | Foster City, CA | 1,022 | 505 |