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List of prolific inventors

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The 100 known most prolific inventors based on worldwide utility patents are shown in the following table. While in many cases this is the number of utility patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it may include utility patents granted by other countries, as noted by the source references for an inventor.

Prolific Inventors

Inventor Pats Fams Fam % Pat Yrs Yrs Pat /Yr Inv /Pat Pat Residence Majority Assignment
Shunpei Yamazaki 6348 2811 44.3% 1972—2024 52.2 122 3.6  Japan Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kia Silverbrook 4747 1311 27.6% 1994—2014 20 237 1.6  Australia Silverbrook Research
Tao Luo 3274 2753 84.1% 2006—2024 18.1 181 5.6  USA Qualcomm
Kangguo Cheng 2738 1498 54.7% 2004—2024 19.7 139 3.9  USA IBM
Frederick E. Shelton IV 2333 1112 47.7% 2005—2024 19 123 4.5  USA Ethicon
Junyi Li 2129 1804 84.7% 2002—2024 21.6 99 5.2  USA Qualcomm
Peter Gaal 2112 1629 77.1% 2002—2024 21.9 96 5.9  USA Qualcomm
Wanshi Chen 2001 1549 77.4% 2009—2024 15.2 132 5.7  USA Qualcomm
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. 1994 1325 66.4% 1971—2024 52.5 38 8.8  USA Intellectual Ventures
Roderick A. Hyde 1889 1252 66.3% 2001—2024 23.1 82 8.7  USA Intellectual Ventures
Chen-Hua Yu 1712 930 54.3% 1996—2024 28.1 61 4.9  Taiwan TSMC
Hanbyul Seo 1616 1184 73.3% 2012—2024 12.2 132 3.8  South Korea LG
Xiaoxia Zhang 1556 1357 87.2% 2009—2024 15.5 100 5.5  USA Qualcomm
Jun Koyama 1485 618 41.6% 1991—2024 33 45 3.1  Japan Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Esmael H. Dinan 1481 634 42.8% 2006—2024 18 82 3.6  USA Ofinno
Gurtej Singh Sandhu 1424 584 41.0% 1991—2024 32.9 43 2.5  USA Micron
Paul Lapstun 1304 246 18.9% 2000—2023 23 57 2.5  Australia Silverbrook Research
Shou-Shan Fan 1302 1088 83.6% 2006—2024 18.1 72 4.2  China Hon Hai
Jing Sun 1300 1109 85.3% 2012—2024 11.5 113 5.9  USA Qualcomm
Sarbajit K. Rakshit 1267 1052 83.0% 2013—2024 11.5 110 3.4  India IBM
Clarence T. Tegreene 1246 903 72.5% 2000—2024 23.5 53 10.1  USA Intellectual Ventures
Alexander Reznicek 1236 737 59.6% 2006—2024 18.2 68 3.9  USA IBM
Satoshi Seo 1161 550 47.4% 2002—2024 21.5 54 4.1  Japan Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kijun Kim 1135 792 69.8% 2013—2024 10.5 108 4.6  South Korea LG
Suckchel Yang 1127 729 64.7% 2013—2024 11 102 4.7  South Korea LG
Leonard Forbes 1109 411 37.1% 1975—2019 43.3 26 2.6  USA Micron
Edward K. Y. Jung 1109 794 71.6% 1996—2023 27.4 40 8.0  USA Intellectual Ventures
Shan Liu 1101 738 67.0% 2013—2024 10.8 102 3.4  USA Tencent
Joonkui Ahn 1100 718 65.3% 2013—2024 11 100 4.7  South Korea LG
Thomas Edison 1084 NA NA 1869—1933 63.9 17 1.0  USA Thomas Edison
Rick Allen Hamilton II 1062 714 67.2% 1999—2024 25 42 4.2  USA IBM
Juan Montojo 1049 858 81.8% 2004—2024 20.3 52 6.9  USA Qualcomm
Marta Karczewicz 1047 866 82.7% 2000—2024 23.5 45 4.0  USA Qualcomm
Ruilong Xie 1012 752 74.3% 2013—2024 11.4 89 4.2  USA IBM
Donald E. Weder 1000 395 39.5% 1978—2015 37.1 27 1.1  USA Weder Family Trust
Jason K. Resch 997 501 50.3% 2009—2024 14.9 67 4.2  USA IBM
Jason L. Harris 997 595 59.7% 2011—2024 13.5 74 6.0  USA Ethicon
George Albert Lyon 993 NA NA 1901—1965 64.5 15 1.0  Canada Lyon George Albert
Michael J. Sullivan 993 534 53.8% 1989—2024 34.9 28 3.8  USA Acushnet Holdings
Jordin T. Kare 988 640 64.8% 1992—2024 31.4 31 9.1  USA Intellectual Ventures
Jay S. Walker 978 421 43.0% 1998—2024 25.8 38 5.2  USA Walker Digital
Tingfang Ji 971 721 74.3% 2006—2024 17.9 54 6.9  USA Qualcomm
Yunjung Yi 970 687 70.8% 2015—2024 8.6 113 3.3  South Korea LG
Takahiro Nishi 959 348 36.3% 2001—2024 22.9 42 6.3  Japan Panasonic
John F. O'Connor 949 NA NA 1901—1935 33.9 28 NA  USA William H. Miner
Ahmadreza Rofougaran 946 458 48.4% 2002—2024 21.8 43 6.4  USA Broadcom
Melvin De Groote 925 NA NA 1924—1966 41.8 22 NA  USA Petrolite
David R. Hall 909 754 82.9% 1985—2024 39 23 3.8  USA Hall Labs
Nathan Myhrvold 905 613 67.7% 1994—2024 29.7 30 11.1  USA Intellectual Ventures
Seungmin Lee 901 661 73.4% 2014—2024 9.7 93 3.5  South Korea LG
William H. Eby 899 895 99.6% 1994—2024 30.2 30 1.2  USA Monsanto
Francis H. Richards 894 NA NA 1899—1930 30.8 29 NA  USA Francis H. Richards
Hao Xu 891 636 71.4% 2005—2024 19.2 46 4.7  China Qualcomm
Mark Malamud 885 690 78.0% 1997—2023 25.9 34 7.5  USA Intellectual Ventures
Hajime Kimura 877 279 31.8% 2002—2024 21.6 41 2.6  Japan Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Robert W. Lord 866 682 78.8% 2003—2024 20.4 42 7.6  USA Intellectual Ventures
Royce A. Levien 854 666 78.0% 1997—2023 25.9 33 6.8  USA Intellectual Ventures
Hongyuan Zhang 854 471 55.2% 2009—2024 15.1 57 3.9  USA Marvell
Muriel Y. Ishikawa 838 560 66.8% 2002—2023 21.2 40 11.1  USA Intellectual Ventures
Michael K. Gschwind 836 442 52.9% 2001—2024 23.2 36 2.6  USA IBM
Clifford A. Pickover 833 548 65.8% 1992—2024 32.2 26 3.9  USA IBM
Chih-Chao Yang 831 516 62.1% 2003—2024 20.5 41 3.4  USA IBM
Lee D. Whetsel 831 128 15.4% 1991—2024 33.2 25 1.1  USA Texas Instruments
Devendra K. Sadana 807 456 56.5% 1983—2024 41.4 19 4.3  USA IBM
SungDuck Chun 789 481 61.0% 2007—2024 16.5 48 3.8  South Korea LG
Salman Akram 782 290 37.1% 1995—2024 28.6 27 2.9  USA Micron
Warren M. Farnworth 774 289 37.3% 1990—2020 24.4 32 2.8  USA Micron
James A. Jorasch 769 309 40.2% 1994—2024 29.7 26 3.9  USA Walker Digital
Bruce B. Doris 763 433 56.7% 1995—2023 28.7 27 4.2  USA IBM
Stuart C. Salter 762 715 93.8% 2009—2024 14.5 53 4.8  USA Ford
Hsien-Wei Chen 761 379 49.8% 2005—2024 19.3 39 3.5  Taiwan TSMC
Youngdae Lee 759 599 78.9% 2014—2024 10.2 74 3.1  South Korea LG
Jeyhan Karaoguz 757 371 49.0% 1996—2024 27.5 28 4.6  USA Broadcom
Carleton Ellis 753 NA NA 1902—1946 43.1 17 NA  USA Ellis Foster Co
Justin T. Mason 752 748 99.5% 2008—2024 15.6 48 1.0  USA MS Technologies
Ali Khakifirooz 750 406 54.1% 2011—2024 12.8 59 4.2  USA IBM
Xue Dong 741 724 97.7% 2010—2024 13.5 55 7.4  China BOE
John M. Santosuosso 738 466 63.1% 2001—2024 22.5 33 3.9  USA IBM
Hideo Ando 733 123 16.8% 1983—2020 36.7 20 3.1  Japan Toshiba
George Spector 723 723 100% 1974—1998 24.6 29 2.1  USA George Spector
Yan Zhou 723 646 89.3% 2012—2024 11.8 61 4.4  USA Qualcomm
Austin L. Gurney 718 182 25.3% 1999—2021 21.6 33 2.9  USA Genentech
Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur 716 581 81.1% 2006—2024 18.2 39 2.6  France Cisco Systems
Frederick A. Ware 714 225 31.5% 1981—2024 42.6 17 2.8  USA Rambus
Shougo Sato 712 279 39.2% 1992—2024 31.7 22 1.8  Japan Brother
Satoshi Nagata 711 675 94.9% 2011—2024 12.7 56 4.0  Japan NTT
Lisa Seacat DeLuca 708 513 72.5% 2009—2024 15.4 46 2.7  USA IBM
Gregory J. Boss 707 484 68.5% 2008—2024 16.3 43 4.2  USA IBM
Tetsujiro Kondo 700 528 75.4% 1987—2021 34 21 3.8  Japan Sony
Elihu Thomson 696 NA NA 1899—1935 35.9 19 NA  USA GE
Chung-Shi Liu 686 377 55.0% 2000—2024 24.5 28 6.1  Taiwan TSMC
Irwin Gerszberg 681 312 45.8% 1994—2024 30.2 23 6.8  USA AT&T
Kyungmin Park 680 372 54.7% 2014—2024 10.2 67 5.2  USA Ofinno
Eric C. Leuthardt 677 457 67.5% 2006—2024 17.7 38 9.1  USA Intellectual Ventures
Paul S. Henry 656 301 45.9% 1978—2023 44.9 15 6.3  USA AT&T
William I. Wood 653 259 39.7% 1981—2013 32.2 20 5.2  USA Genentech
Woosuk Ko 653 253 38.7% 2015—2024 9.2 71 3.4  South Korea LG
Simon R. Walmsley 651 171 26.3% 1995—2012 17.2 38 3.2  Australia Silverbrook Research
Jae Hoon Chung 650 381 58.6% 2010—2023 13 50 4.5  South Korea LG
Xiaochuan Chen 650 635 97.7% 2014—2024 10 65 7.0  China BOE

This table is usually updated every Tuesday, and is current as of July 9, 2024.

The columns are defined as follows:

  • Inventor: The name of the inventor.
  • Pats: The number of utility patents that have been issued. Only utility patents (or the international equivalent) are listed, as a utility patent is a patent for an invention. Not all patents are for inventions. Other patent types include: design patents for the ornamental design of an object; plant patents for plant varieties; and reissue patents, where a correction is made to an already granted patent. This list does not include patent applications (patents pending) as there is no guarantee that a patent application actually describes a novel invention until the patent is granted.
  • Fams: The number of patent families, which in USPTO data includes an original or continuation-in-part patent by itself or with one or more continuation or divisional patents based on the original or continuation-in-part patent. This is different than global patent families that represent a patent filed in more than one jurisdiction. "NA" signifies the inventor was active prior to digital records.
  • Fam %: The percentage of original and continuation-in-part patents that are in the inventor's patent portfolio . "NA" signifies the inventor was active prior to digital records.
  • Pat Yrs: The first and last year in which an inventor received a patent issuance.
  • Yrs: The number of years from first issuance to most recent issuance, rounded to first decimal based on dates.
  • Pats /Yr: The average number of patents received per year .
  • Inv / Pat: The average number of inventors listed on the inventor's most recent 50 patents as of September 7, 2021 or on the date the inventor was added to the table if later. "NA" signifies the inventor was active prior to digital records.
  • Pat Residence: The country of inventor's residence listed in their most recent patent issuance.
  • Majority Assignment: The entity that has the most patents assigned from an inventor's portfolio. This is current and not original assignment. It is usually, but not always an indication of which company the inventor worked at for the majority of their patent activity.

Significance of inventions

This table is a sortable list of the most prolific inventors as measured by utility patents granted. It does not include other types of invention, such as inventions that were never applied for nor granted, for which there is no known source. Nor does the table attempt to measure the significance of an inventor and their inventions. The significance of inventions is often not apparent until many decades after the invention has been made. For recent inventors, it is not yet possible to determine their place in history.

Various published lists

Rankings of prolific inventors have been published at various times. However, until the patent records were digitized, these lists were very tedious to prepare, as many thousands of patent records had to be checked manually. Even after digitization, it is still not a simple process. While the USPTO keeps statistics for annual rankings of inventions assigned to companies, it no longer publishes rankings of individual inventors. The last such list was published by the USPTO in 1998. Also, patents predating 1976 have not yet been digitized in the USPTO records. This means that patents before 1976 will not be included in a USPTO search by inventor name, and the number of patents granted before 1976 must be added to current searches.

A more extensive list of prolific inventors with additional information and ability to filter on country, gender, time period, patent type, and Nobel laureate title can be found at idiyas.com/top/inventors. There are some discrepancies with this article due to different inventor queries that attempt to account for data issues such as typos and multiple inventors with the same name.

See also

References

  1. "USPTO publication: Prolific Inventors Receiving Utility Patents 1988–1997" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2011-07-12.

References of Inventors' Patents

  1. Shunpei Yamazaki
  2. Kia Silverbrook
  3. Tao Luo
  4. Kangguo Cheng
  5. Frederick E. Shelton IV
  6. Junyi Li
  7. Peter Gaal
  8. Wanshi Chen
  9. Lowell L. Wood, Jr.
  10. Roderick A. Hyde
  11. Chen-Hua Yu
  12. Hanbyul Seo
  13. Xiaoxia Zhang
  14. Jun Koyama
  15. Esmael H. Dinan
  16. Gurtej Singh Sandhu
  17. Paul Lapstun
  18. Shou-Shan Fan
  19. Jing Sun
  20. Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  21. Clarence T. Tegreene
  22. Alexander Reznicek
  23. Satoshi Seo
  24. Kijun Kim
  25. Suckchel Yang
  26. Leonard Forbes
  27. Edward K. Y. Jung
  28. Shan Liu
  29. Joonkui Ahn
  30. Thomas Edison
  31. Rick Allen Hamilton II
  32. Juan Montojo
  33. Marta Karczewicz
  34. Ruilong Xie
  35. Donald E. Weder
  36. Jason K. Resch
  37. Jason L. Harris
  38. George Albert Lyon
  39. Michael J. Sullivan
  40. Jordin T. Kare
  41. Jay S. Walker
  42. Tingfang Ji
  43. Yunjung Yi
  44. Takahiro Nishi
  45. John F. O'Connor
  46. Ahmadreza Rofougaran
  47. Melvin De Groote
  48. David R. Hall
  49. Nathan Myhrvold
  50. Seungmin Lee
  51. William H. Eby
  52. Francis H. Richards
  53. Hao Xu
  54. Mark Malamud
  55. Hajime Kimura
  56. Robert W. Lord
  57. Royce A. Levien
  58. Hongyuan Zhang
  59. Muriel Y. Ishikawa
  60. Michael K. Gschwind
  61. Clifford A. Pickover
  62. Chih-Chao Yang
  63. Lee D. Whetsel
  64. Devendra K. Sadana
  65. SungDuck Chun
  66. Salman Akram
  67. Warren M. Farnworth
  68. James A. Jorasch
  69. Bruce B. Doris
  70. Stuart C. Salter
  71. Hsien-Wei Chen
  72. Youngdae Lee
  73. Jeyhan Karaoguz
  74. Carleton Ellis
  75. Justin T. Mason
  76. Ali Khakifirooz
  77. Xue Dong
  78. John M. Santosuosso
  79. Hideo Ando
  80. George Spector
  81. Yan Zhou
  82. Austin L. Gurney
  83. Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur
  84. Frederick A. Ware
  85. Shougo Sato
  86. Satoshi Nagata
  87. Lisa Seacat DeLuca
  88. Gregory J. Boss
  89. Tetsujiro Kondo
  90. Elihu Thomson
  91. Chung-Shi Liu
  92. Irwin Gerszberg
  93. Kyungmin Park
  94. Eric C. Leuthardt
  95. Paul S. Henry
  96. William I. Wood
  97. Woosuk Ko
  98. Simon R. Walmsley
  99. Jae Hoon Chung
  100. Xiaochuan Chen
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