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Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025

Rankings count each patent once by its primary Cooperative Patent Classification. All-time pages aggregate the full database; year pages use patent grant year.

Recent years: 2016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Patents per Year

Patents granted per year, 1996 to 2025Bar chart with a peak of 7,073 patents in 2010.peak 7,0731996: 3,440 patents19961997: 3,601 patents1998: 5,080 patents1999: 5,108 patents19992000: 5,282 patents2001: 5,495 patents2002: 5,727 patents20022003: 5,965 patents2004: 6,233 patents2005: 5,473 patents20052006: 6,998 patents2007: 6,466 patents2008: 6,445 patents20082009: 6,377 patents2010: 7,073 patents2011: 7,014 patents20112012: 6,604 patents2013: 5,900 patents2014: 5,913 patents20142015: 5,217 patents2016: 4,708 patents2017: 4,209 patents20172018: 3,362 patents2019: 3,589 patents2020: 3,839 patents20202021: 3,495 patents2022: 3,198 patents2023: 3,109 patents20232024: 3,312 patents2025: 3,065 patents2025

Top Inventors

Rank Inventor Patents Primary Company
1 Robert G. Biskeborn 42 IBM
2 Yingda Dong 39 Sandisk Technologies
3 Calvin S. Lo 25 IBM
#4 Jung Pill Kim 21 Qualcomm
#5 Sang-Wan Nam 20 Samsung
#6 Eyal Gurgi 18 Apple
#7 Kaizhong Gao 18 Seagate Technology
#8 Choung Ki SONG 17 Sk Hynix
#9 Mark A. Lantz 17 IBM
#10 Dae-Seok Byeon 16 Samsung
#11 Syed M. Alam 16 Everspin Technologies
#12 Wenzhong Zhu 16 Seagate Technology
#13 Feng Liu 15 Western Digital (Fremont)
#14 Michael C. Kautzky 15 Seagate Technology
#15 Seung H. Kang 15 Qualcomm
#16 Violante Moschiano 15 Micron
#17 Yoshitaka Sasaki 15 Headway Technologies
#18 Cheng Hung Lee 14 TSMC
#19 Frederick A. Ware 14 Rambus
#20 Giovanni Cherubini 14 IBM
#21 Hiroyuki Ito 14 Headway Technologies
#22 Jiahui Yuan 14 Sandisk Technologies
#23 Kuljit S. Bains 14 Intel
#24 Simeon Furrer 14 IBM
#25 Edward Charles Gage 13 Seagate Technology
#26 Hiroshi Maejima 13 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#27 Jens Jelitto 13 IBM
#28 Man Lung Mui 13 Sandisk Technologies
#29 Masanobu Shirakawa 13 Kioxia
#30 Peter Hahn 13 Magnecomp
#31 Shigeki Tanemura 13 Headway Technologies
#32 Yoav Kasorla 13 Apple
#33 Akira Goda 12 Micron
#34 Chun-Hsiung Hung 12 Macronix International Co.
#35 Hee Youl Lee 12 Sk Hynix
#36 Hironori Araki 12 Headway Technologies
#37 Toru Tanzawa 12 Micron
#38 Chang Hua Siau 11 Unity Semiconductor
#39 Donghun Kwak 11 Samsung
#40 Hyun-Kook Park 11 Samsung
#41 Jason Liang 11 IBM
#42 Kazuki Sato 11 Headway Technologies
#43 Kenichiro Yamada 11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#44 Kiyoshi Kato 11 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
#45 Kitae Park 11 Samsung
#46 Liang Pang 11 Sandisk Technologies
#47 Masaaki Higashitani 11 Sandisk Technologies
#48 Masato Shiimoto 11 Hgst Netherlands, B.V.
#49 Nhan X. Bui 11 IBM
#50 Peter Wung Lee 11 Aplus Flash Technology
#51 Shine C. Chung 11 TSMC
#52 Shunpei Yamazaki 11 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
#53 Taehyun Kim 11 Qualcomm
#54 Tong Zhao 11 Seagate Technology
#55 Wei-Hung Lin 11 TSMC
#56 Yen-Huei Chen 11 TSMC
#57 Yeong-Taek Lee 11 Samsung
#58 Anirban Roy 10 Medtronic
#59 Chi-Weon Yoon 10 Samsung
#60 Erich F. Haratsch 10 Seagate Technology
#61 Eran Sharon 10 Sandisk Technologies
#62 Eric W. Singleton 10 Seagate Technology
#63 Ian Shaeffer 10 Rambus
#64 Jian Chen 10
#65 Jon D. Trantham 10 Seagate Technology
#66 Jun Koyama 10 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
#67 Kiran Pangal 10 Intel
#68 Kuen Chee Ee 10 Magnecomp
#69 Robert A. Hutchins 10 IBM
#70 Sagar Magia 10 Sandisk Technologies
#71 Tommaso Vali 10 Micron
#72 Victor Boris Sapozhnikov 10 Seagate Technology
#73 Yong-Kyu Lee 10 Samsung
#74 Zhongze Wang 10 Qualcomm
#75 Zhimin Yuan 10 Disney
#76 Abu Sebastian 9 IBM
#77 Chubing Peng 9 Seagate Technology
#78 Deepanshu Dutta 9 Sandisk Technologies
#79 François Tailliet 9 Stmicroelectronics (Rousset) Sas
#80 Hernan A. Castro 9 Micron
#81 Hung-Jen Liao 9 TSMC
#82 Idan Alrod 9 Sandisk Technologies
#83 Jagdish Sabde 9 Sandisk Technologies
#84 Jin-Ki Kim 9 Mosaid Technologies Incorporated
#85 Kevin B. Judd 9 IBM
#86 Khanh Nguyen 9 Sandisk Technologies
#87 Meng-Fan Chang 9 National Tsing Hua University
#88 Michael Allen Seigler 9 Seagate Technology
#89 Naftali Sommer 9 Apple
#90 Sang Oh Lim 9 Sk Hynix
#91 Seong-Ook Jung 9 Qualcomm
#92 Shaohua Yang 9 Lsi
#93 Thomas Andre 9 Everspin Technologies
#94 Tianhong Yan 9
#95 Tsung-Chieh Yang 9 Silicon Motion
#96 William H. Radke 9 Micron
#97 Xia Li 9 Qualcomm
#98 Yingguo Peng 9 Seagate Technology
#99 Yue-Der Chih 9 TSMC
#100 Yuniarto Widjaja 9 Zeno Semiconductor

Top Companies

Rank Company Patents
1 Sk Hynix 470
2 Samsung 320
3 Seagate Technology 286
#4 Micron 268
#5 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 258
#6 IBM 235
#7 Sandisk Technologies 188
#8 Hgst Netherlands, B.V. 127
#9 Intel 124
#10 TSMC 108
#11 Western Digital Technologies 95
#12 Qualcomm 82
#13 Western Digital (Fremont) 60
#14 Sony 59
#15 Macronix International Co. 58
#16 Apple 56
#17 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory 56
#18 Avago Technologies General Ip (Singapore) Pte. 52
#19 Globalfoundries 45
#20 Freeescale Semiconductor 44
#21 Rambus 44
#22 Renesas Electronics 44
#23 Panasonic 44
#24 Headway Technologies 39
#25 Disney 39
#26 United Microelectronics 35
#27 Ps4 Luxco S.A.R.L. 27
#28 Texas Instruments 25
#29 Everspin Technologies 24
#30 AMD 22
#31 Ememory Technology 22
#32 NVIDIA 22
#33 Phison Electronics 21
#34 Hewlett Packard Enterprise 20
#35 Cypress Semiconductor 19
#36 BOE 19
#37 LG 19
#38 Oracle 19
#39 Stmicroelectronics Sa 18
#40 Fujitsu Limited 16
#41 Silicon Storage Technology 16
#42 Stmicroelectronics (Rousset) Sas 15
#43 Tdk 15
#44 Avalanche Technology 14
#45 Fujifilm 14
#46 Infineon Technologies Ag 14
#47 Silicon Motion 14
#48 Unknown 14
#49 Adesto Technologies 13
#50 Conversant Intellectual Property Management 13
#51 Magnecomp 13
#52 Stmicroelectronics International N.V. 13
#53 Hitachi 12
#54 Koniniklijke Philips N.V. 12
#55 Broadcom 12
#56 Canon 12
#57 Microsoft 12
#58 Dell Products 11
#59 Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co. 11
#60 Socionext 11
#61 Crossbar 10
#62 Hitachi-Lg Data Storage 10
#63 Hutchinson 10
#64 Showa Denko K.K. 10
#65 Google 10
#66 CEA 9
#67 National Tsing Hua University 9
#68 Nec 9
#69 Sae Magnetics (H.K.) 9
#70 Wd Media 9
#71 AT&T 8
#72 Integrated Silicon Solution 8
#73 Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. 8
#74 Nhk Spring Co. 8
#75 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha 8
#76 Zeno Semiconductor 8
#77 Au Optronics 7
#78 Cavium, Llc. 7
#79 CNRS 7
#80 Gsi Technology 7
#81 Inphi 7
#82 Lapis Semiconductor Co. 7
#83 Mitsubishi Electric 7
#84 Unity Semiconductor 7
#85 Advantest 6
#86 Foxconn 6
#87 Kandou Labs Sa 6
#88 Lite-On Technology 6
#89 Nantero 6
#90 Powerchip Technology 6
#91 Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing 6
#92 Adobe 5
#93 Intellectual Ventures 5
#94 Empire Technology Development 5
#95 Hefei Boe Optoelectronics Technology Co. 5
#96 Hitachi Maxell 5
#97 Htc 5
#98 Iii Holdings 12 5
#99 ITRI 5
#100 Kilopass Technology 5