California ranks #1 among US states for total patents filed all time, with 2,890,957 patents from 386,348 inventors across 1,260 cities. On a per-capita basis that is 73.1 patents per 1,000 residents, a standard benchmark for comparing state-level R&D intensity.
Top Cities in California All Time
| Rank | City | Patents | Inventors |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | San Jose, CA | 293,137 | 32,062 |
| #2 | San Diego, CA | 238,248 | 23,606 |
| #3 | San Francisco, CA | 228,769 | 26,999 |
| #4 | Sunnyvale, CA | 119,956 | 14,302 |
| #5 | Palo Alto, CA | 103,278 | 9,675 |
| #6 | Mountain View, CA | 90,836 | 11,022 |
| #7 | Fremont, CA | 79,551 | 9,298 |
| #8 | Santa Clara, CA | 76,835 | 9,301 |
| #9 | Cupertino, CA | 75,222 | 6,989 |
| #10 | Los Angeles, CA | 62,110 | 12,377 |
| #11 | Los Altos, CA | 47,424 | 3,651 |
| #12 | Irvine, CA | 46,389 | 6,241 |
| #13 | Saratoga, CA | 41,529 | 2,933 |
| #14 | Redwood City, CA | 40,987 | 5,061 |
| #15 | Los Gatos, CA | 36,505 | 2,986 |
| #16 | Menlo Park, CA | 35,974 | 3,774 |
| #17 | Pleasanton, CA | 28,705 | 3,062 |
| #18 | San Mateo, CA | 28,174 | 3,727 |
| #19 | Oakland, CA | 27,793 | 4,380 |
| #20 | Carlsbad, CA | 25,181 | 2,500 |
| #21 | Berkeley, CA | 24,005 | 3,731 |
| #22 | Milpitas, CA | 22,512 | 3,192 |
| #23 | Santa Monica, CA | 22,351 | 3,628 |
| #24 | Campbell, CA | 21,907 | 2,187 |
| #25 | Village of La Jolla, CA | 19,525 | 2,316 |