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Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025
Home › Technologies › Data storage

Data storage Patent Leaders in 2021 2021

Primary CPC class G11 · Section G

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 26 IBM
2 Yen-Huei Chen 23 TSMC
3 Daniele Vimercati 22 Micron
#4 Scott J. Derner 20 Micron
#5 Xiang Yang 19 Sandisk Technologies
#6 Christopher John Kawamura 18 Micron
#7 Umberto Di Vincenzo 18 Micron
#8 James S. Rehmeyer 17 Micron
#9 Kishore Kumar Muchherla 17 Micron
#10 Minoru Yamaga 17 Sony
#11 Ferdinando Bedeschi 16 Micron
#12 Huai-Yuan Tseng 16 Sandisk Technologies
#13 Masanobu Shirakawa 16 Kioxia
#14 Suping Song 16 Western Digital Technologies
#15 Deepanshu Dutta 15 Sandisk Technologies
#16 Harish Reddy Singidi 15 Micron
#17 Hidehiro Fujiwara 15 TSMC
#18 Woongrae Kim 15 Sk Hynix
#19 Frederick A. Ware 13 Rambus
#20 Yu-Der Chih 13 TSMC
#21 Calvin S. Lo 12 IBM
#22 Charles L. Ingalls 12 Micron
#23 Fabio Pellizzer 12 Micron
#24 Hung-Jen Liao 12 TSMC
#25 Qiang Tang 12 Micron
#26 Sivagnanam Parthasarathy 12 Micron
#27 Ashutosh Malshe 11 Micron
#28 George B. Raad 11 Micron
#29 Innocenzo Tortorelli 11 Micron
#30 James Fitzpatrick 11 Micron
#31 Noboru Shibata 11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#32 Yan Wu 11 Headway Technologies
#33 Yuan He 11 Micron
#34 Andy Wangkun Chen 10 NVIDIA
#35 Christopher G. Wieduwilt 10 Micron
#36 Hiroki Yabe 10 Sandisk Technologies
#37 Ken Oowada 10 Sandisk Technologies
#38 Naoyuki Narita 10 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#39 Norihito Kasada 10 Fujifilm
#40 Quang Le 10 Western Digital Technologies
#41 Tomoyuki Maeda 10 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#42 Tomoyuki Sasaki 10 Tdk
#43 Xiaojiang Guo 10 Micron
#44 Xiong Liu 10 Seagate Technology
#45 Yali Song 10 Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
#46 Zhigang Bai 10 Western Digital (Fremont)
#47 Agostino Pirovano 9 Micron
#48 Alexander Goncharov 9 Western Digital Technologies
#49 Bruce A. Liikanen 9 Micron
#50 Chih-Yu Lin 9 TSMC
#51 Daniel B. Penney 9 Micron
#52 Jhon Jhy Liaw 9 TSMC
#53 Jin-Woo Han 9 Monolithic 3D
#54 Jiyun Li 9 Micron
#55 Kuok San Ho 9 Western Digital Technologies
#56 Lijie Guan 9 Headway Technologies
#57 Michael Kuok San Ho 9 Western Digital Technologies
#58 Patrick R. Khayat 9 Micron
#59 Riccardo Muzzetto 9 Micron
#60 Sang-Wan Nam 9 Samsung
#61 Sampath K. Ratnam 9 Micron
#62 Tae H. Kim 9 Micron
#63 Terence Lam 9 Western Digital Technologies
#64 Tsuyoshi Miyamura 9 IBM
#65 Vamsi Pavan Rayaprolu 9 Micron
#66 Yoshihisa Kojima 9 Toshiba Memory
#67 Zhanjie Li 9 Western Digital Technologies
#68 Zhenming Zhou 9 Micron
#69 Abhishek A. Sharma 8 Intel
#70 Akhilesh Jaiswal 8 Globalfoundries U.S.
#71 Andrea Redaelli 8 Micron
#72 Cheng Hung Lee 8 TSMC
#73 Dean D. Gans 8 Micron
#74 Henry Chin 8 Sandisk Technologies
#75 Jianquan Jia 8 Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
#76 Kalyan C. Kavalipurapu 8 Micron
#77 Kaikai You 8 Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
#78 Larry J. Koudele 8 Micron
#79 Luca De Santis 8 Round Rock Research
#80 Masaaki Higashitani 8 Sandisk Technologies
#81 Marie Takada 8 Kioxia
#82 Shih-Lien Linus Lu 8 TSMC
#83 Sung Lae OH 8 Sk Hynix
#84 Thomas H. Kinsley 8 Micron
#85 Timothy B. Cowles 8 Micron
#86 Tommaso Vali 8 Micron
#87 Xinwei Guo 8 Micron
#88 Yohei Shiokawa 8 Tdk
#89 Yu-Chung Lien 8 Sandisk Technologies
#90 AbdelHakim S. Alhussien 7 Seagate Technology
#91 Bhagwati Prasad 7 Western Digital Technologies
#92 Catherine Graves 7 Hewlett Packard Enterprise
#93 Chikara Kondo 7 Micron
#94 Changqing Shi 7 HGST
#95 Cyrille Dray 7 Stmicroelectronics Sa
#96 El Mehdi Boujamaa 7 NVIDIA
#97 Hernan A. Castro 7 Micron
#98 Hee Youl Lee 7 Sk Hynix
#99 Hirofumi Suto 7 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#100 Hieu Van Tran 7 University of California

Top Companies

Rank ↑ Company ↕ Patents ↕
1 Micron 583
2 Sk Hynix 289
3 Samsung 248
#4 Western Digital Technologies 160
#5 IBM 143
#6 TSMC 136
#7 Sandisk Technologies 111
#8 Toshiba Memory 111
#9 Seagate Technology 90
#10 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 79
#11 Kioxia 78
#12 United Microelectronics 71
#13 Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage 69
#14 Intel 62
#15 Sony 62
#16 Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. 47
#17 NVIDIA 40
#18 BOE 35
#19 Macronix International Co. 32
#20 Fujifilm 31
#21 Rambus 30
#22 Headway Technologies 29
#23 Qualcomm 28
#24 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory 24
#25 Disney 20
#26 Tdk 19
#27 Renesas Electronics 18
#28 Ememory Technology 14
#29 Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co. 14
#30 Panasonic 13
#31 Texas Instruments 13
#32 Apple 12
#33 Gopro 12
#34 AMD 11
#35 Globalfoundries U.S. 11
#36 Hewlett Packard Enterprise 11
#37 Nxp Usa 11
#38 Realtek Semiconductor 11
#39 Silicon Storage Technology 11
#40 Phison Electronics 10
#41 Seoul National University R&Db Foundation 9
#42 Stmicroelectronics Sa 9
#43 Dell Products 8
#44 Hoya 8
#45 Nhk Spring Co. 8
#46 Spin Memory 8
#47 Stmicroelectronics (Rousset) Sas 8
#48 Google 8
#49 Meta 8
#50 Amazon 7
#51 Globalfoundries Singapore Pte. 7
#52 Gsi Technology 7
#53 Hefei Reliance Memory Limited 7
#54 Showa Denko K.K. 7
#55 Silicon Motion 7
#56 Snap 7
#57 Stmicroelectronics International N.V. 7
#58 Synopsys 7
#59 Microsoft 7
#60 AT&T 6
#61 CEA 6
#62 Everspin Technologies 6
#63 Ferroelectric Memory Gmbh 6
#64 Infineon Technologies Ag 6
#65 Lapis Semiconductor Co. 6
#66 Monolithic 3D 6
#67 Nantero 6
#68 Nanya Technology 6
#69 Northrop Grumman 6
#70 Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing 6
#71 Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) 6
#72 Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) 6
#73 Sunrise Memory 6
#74 Tohoku University 6
#75 Adobe 5
#76 Univeristy Of Alabama 5
#77 Changxin Memory Technologies 5
#78 Magnecomp 5
#79 Mediatek 5
#80 Ovonyx Memory Technology 5
#81 Rovi Guides 5
#82 Sae Magnetics (H.K.) 5
#83 Unity Semiconductor 5
#84 Zeno Semiconductor 5
#85 Canon 5
#86 Oracle 5
#87 Applied Materials 4
#88 Adesto Technologies 4
#89 Chongqing Boe Optoelectronics Technology Co. 4
#90 Crossbar 4
#91 Emc Ip Holding Company 4
#92 Etron Technology 4
#93 Fuji Electric Co. 4
#94 Fujitsu Limited 4
#95 Gracenote 4
#96 Imec Vzw 4
#97 Industry-University Cooperation Foundation Hanyang University 4
#98 KAIST 4
#99 Mentium Technologies 4
#100 Ordos Yuansheng Optoelectronics Co. 4