List of prolific inventors

Thomas Alva Edison was widely known as the America's most prolific inventor, even after his death in 1931.[1] He held a total of 1,093 U.S. patents (1,084 utility patents and 9 design patents).[2] In 2003, his patent count was exceeded by Japanese inventor Shunpei Yamazaki.[3] On February 26, 2008, Yamazaki's patent count was exceeded by Australian inventor Kia Silverbrook.[4] In 2017, Silverbrook's patent count was exceeded by Yamazaki.

Worldwide utility patents

Inventors with 200 or more 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.

Inventor Patents Country Patent Years Years Patents / Year Majority assignment
Shunpei Yamazaki [5] 5713  Japan 1972-2020 49 117 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kia Silverbrook [6] 4747  Australia 1994-2018 25 190 Silverbrook Research
Kangguo Cheng [7] 2198  USA 2004-2020 17 129 IBM
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. [8] 1949  USA 1977-2020 44 44 Intellectual Ventures
Roderick A. Hyde [9] 1857  USA 2001-2020 20 93 Intellectual Ventures
Jun Koyama [10] 1409  Japan 1991-2020 30 47 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Gurtej Sandhu [11] 1349  India 1991-2020 30 45 Micron
Paul Lapstun [12] 1293  Australia 2000-2020 21 62 Silverbrook Research
Clarence T. Tegreene [13] 1223  USA 2000-2020 21 58 Intellectual Ventures
Shou-Shan Fan [14] 1130  China 2006-2020 15 75 Hon Hai
Leonard Forbes [15] 1108  Canada 1991-2019 29 38 Micron
Edward K. Y. Jung [16] 1095  USA 1996-2020 25 44 Intellectual Ventures
Thomas Edison [17] 1084  USA 1869-1931 63 17 Thomas Edison
Donald E. Weder [18] 1000  USA 1978-2017 40 25 Weder Family Trust
George Albert Lyon [19] 993  Canada 1901-1965 65 15 Lyon George Albert
Rick Allen Hamilton II [20] 991  USA 1999-2020 22 45 IBM
Jordin T. Kare [21] 970  USA 1992-2020 29 33 Intellectual Ventures
Jay S. Walker [22] 966  USA 1998-2020 23 42 Walker Digital
Michael J. Sullivan [23] 951  USA 1989-2020 32 30 Acushnet Holdings
John F. O'Connor [24] 949  USA 1901-1935 35 27 William H. Miner
Melvin De Groote [25] 925  USA 1924-1966 43 22 Petrolite
Francis H. Richards [26] 894  USA 1899-1930 32 28 Francis H. Richards
Nathan Myhrvold [27] 888  USA 1994-2020 27 33 Intellectual Ventures
Mark Malamud [28] 877  USA 1997-2020 24 37 Intellectual Ventures
Ahmadreza Rofougaran [29] 870  USA 2002-2020 19 46 Broadcom
Robert W. Lord [30] 854  USA 2003-2020 18 47 Intellectual Ventures
Royce A. Levien [31] 847  USA 1997-2020 24 35 Intellectual Ventures
William H. Eby [32] 834  USA 1994-2020 27 31 Monsanto
Muriel Y. Ishikawa [33] 826  USA 2002-2020 19 43 Intellectual Ventures
Warren Farnworth [34] 773  USA 1990-2020 31 25 Micron
Salman Akram [35] 767  USA 1995-2020 26 30 Micron
Jason K. Resch [36] 761  USA 2009-2020 12 63 IBM
Carleton Ellis [37] 753  USA 1902-1946 45 17 Ellis Foster Co
Jeyhan Karaoguz [38] 752  USA 1996-2020 25 30 Broadcom
Michael K. Gschwind [39] 749  USA 2001-2020 20 37 IBM
Hideo Ando [40] 729  Japan 1983-2017 35 21 Toshiba
Ali Khakifirooz [41] 729  USA 2011-2020 10 73 IBM
George Spector [42] 722  USA 1975-1998 24 30 George Spector
Austin L. Gurney [43] 716  USA 1999-2020 22 33 Genentech
Clifford A. Pickover [44] 705  USA 1992-2020 29 24 IBM
John M. Santosuosso [45] 699  USA 2001-2020 20 35 IBM
Tetsujiro Kondo [46] 697  Japan 1987-2020 34 20 Sony
Elihu Thomson [47] 696  UK 1899-1935 37 19 GE
Bruce B. Doris [48] 686  USA 1995-2020 26 26 IBM
Devendra K. Sadana [49] 677  India 1983-2020 38 18 IBM
Eric C. Leuthardt [50] 655  USA 2006-2020 15 44 Intellectual Ventures
William I. Wood [51] 653  USA 1981-2016 36 18 Genentech
Simon R. Walmsley [52] 651  Australia 1995-2015 21 31 Silverbrook Research
Chih-Chao Yang [53] 649  USA 2003-2020 18 36 IBM
Edward J. Nowak [54] 629  USA 1979-2020 42 15 IBM
Audrey D. Goddard [55] 625  USA 1997-2019 23 27 Genentech
Ruilong Xie [56] 624  USA 2013-2020 8 78 IBM
Kie Y. Ahn [57] 614  USA 1976-2018 43 14 Micron
Jerome H. Lemelson [58] 606  USA 1953-2009 57 11 Jerome Lemelson
Sarbajit K. Rakshit [59] 603  India 2013-2020 8 75 IBM
Tadahiro Ohmi [60] 597  Japan 1981-2018 38 16 Tadahiro Ohmi
Béla Barényi [61] 595  Austria 1939-1979 41 15 Daimler
Paul J. Godowski [62] 579  USA 1994-2014 21 28 Genentech
Gregory J. Boss [63] 579  USA 2008-2020 13 45 IBM
Artur Fischer [64] 570  Germany 1951-2006 56 10 Artur Fischer
Jeffrey P. Gambino [65] 564  USA 1992-2020 29 19 IBM
Victoria Y. H. Wood [66] 558  USA 2009-2020 12 46 Intellectual Ventures
Irwin Gerszberg [67] 557  USA 1994-2020 27 21 AT&T
Louis L. Hsu [68] 551  USA 1988-2016 29 19 IBM
Anthony K. Stamper [69] 541  USA 1998-2020 23 24 IBM
Lisa Seacat DeLuca [70] 541  USA 2009-2020 12 45 IBM
Ronald S. Cok [71] 536  USA 1986-2020 35 15 Kodak
Edwin H. Land [72] 535  USA 1933-1990 58 9 Polaroid
Kai-Li Jiang [73] 535  China 2006-2020 15 36 Hon Hai
Paul S. Henry [74] 532  USA 1978-2020 43 12 AT&T
Robert S. Langer [75] 530  USA 1983-2020 38 14 MIT
Henri Dreyfus [76] 524   Switzerland 1916-1945 30 17 Henri Dreyfus
Belgacem Haba [77] 521  Algeria 1991-2020 30 17 Tessera
Clyde C. Farmer [78] 513  USA 1905-1960 56 9 Westinghouse Air Brake
Heinz Focke [79] 512  Germany 1965-2013 49 10 Focke & Co.
Mark I. Gardner [80] 511  USA 1994-2010 17 30 AMD
Ravi K. Arimilli [81] 508  India 1992-2019 28 18 IBM
Louis H. Morin [82] 503  USA 1924-1969 46 11 Louis H. Morin
Tobin A. King [83] 501  Australia 2000-2018 19 26 Silverbrook Research
Esmael H. Dinan [84] 495  USA 2006-2020 15 33 Ofinno
James M. Hart [85] 487  USA 1988-2019 32 15 General Motors
Frederick A. Ware [86] 486  USA 1981-2020 40 12 Rambus
Jack A. Mandelman [87] 481  USA 1987-2014 28 17 IBM
Stuart C. Salter [88] 478  USA 2009-2020 12 40 Ford
Brian M. O'Connell [89] 469  USA 2009-2020 12 39 IBM
Pouya Hashemi [90] 468  USA 2013-2020 8 58 IBM
John L. Melanson [91] 464  USA 1978-2020 43 11 Cirrus Logic
Akira Nakazawa [92] 460  Australia 1980-2020 41 11 Silverbrook Research
Lawrence A. Clevenger [93] 455  USA 1996-2020 25 18 IBM
Farhad Barzegar [94] 454  Iran 1988-2020 33 14 AT&T
Eberhard Ammermann [95] 451  Germany 1979-2015 37 12 BASF
Thomas E. Murray [96] 449  USA 1891-1940 50 9 Thomas E. Murray
Vincent J. Zimmer [97] 441  USA 1999-2020 22 20 Intel
Hongyong Zhang [98] 440  Japan 1993-2016 24 18 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Brent A. Anderson [99] 439  USA 2001-2020 20 22 IBM
Scott H. Wittkopp [100] 435  USA 2001-2020 20 22 General Motors
Thomas M. Willis III [101] 426  USA 2006-2020 15 28 AT&T
Xuemin (Sherman) Chen [102] 424  USA 1997-2020 24 18 Broadcom
Valentina Salapura [103] 423  USA 2004-2020 17 25 IBM
John Hays Hammond, Jr. [104] 417  USA 1912-1967 56 7 John Hays Hammond, Jr.
Hossein Eslambolchi [105] 416  USA 1993-2019 27 15 AT&T
Cary L. Bates [106] 414  USA 1994-2020 27 15 IBM
Wilhelm Brandes [107] 411  Germany 1976-2010 35 12 Bayer
Stanford R. Ovshinsky [108] 400  USA 1952-2012 61 7 Energy Conversion Devices
Gary W. Grube [109] 397  USA 1991-2020 30 13 IBM
Bengt Lindoff [110] 395  Sweden 2000-2020 21 19 Ericsson
Michael (S.) Tsirkin [111] 390  Israel 2012-2020 9 43 Red Hat
Josef Theurer [112] 388  Austria 1958-2016 59 7 Plasser & Theurer
David V. Horak [113] 388  USA 1992-2020 29 13 IBM
Paul W. Dent [114] 385  USA 1984-2020 37 10 Ericsson
Wael W. Diab [115] 382  USA 2003-2020 18 21 Broadcom
George P. Liang [116] 379  China 1983-2018 36 11 Florida Turbine Technologies
Hans-Joachim Santel [117] 377  Germany 1986-2013 28 13 Bayer
Jeffrey E. Stahmann [118] 377  USA 1994-2020 27 14 Cardiac Pacemakers
Gisela Lorenz [119] 374  Germany 1990-2015 26 14 BASF
Robert Bennett [120] 374  USA 2002-2020 19 20 AT&T
Donald J. Barnickel [121] 371  USA 2000-2020 21 18 AT&T
Timothy J. Slegel [122] 370  USA 1993-2020 28 13 IBM
Elizabeth A. Sweeney [123] 368  USA 2010-2020 11 33 Intellectual Ventures
William Daniel Hillis [124] 367  USA 1986-2020 35 10 Intellectual Ventures
Garry R. Jackson [125] 367  Australia 2001-2016 16 23 Silverbrook Research
Assaf Natanzon [126] 363  Israel 2007-2020 14 26 EMC
Carl J. Radens [127] 362  USA 1994-2020 27 13 IBM
Greg R. Dhuse [128] 362  USA 2011-2020 10 36 IBM
Dean L. Kamen [129] 362  USA 1979-2020 42 9 DEKA
George Westinghouse [130] 361  USA 1873-1918 46 8 George Westinghouse
Norman M. Berry [131] 360  Australia 2006-2020 15 24 Silverbrook Research
James E. Bostick [132] 357  USA 1993-2020 28 13 IBM
Philip D. Nguyen [133] 356  USA 1992-2020 29 12 Halliburton
Mark W. Kroll [134] 355  USA 1987-2020 34 10 Pacesetter
Robert R. Schmidt [135] 350  Germany 1971-2005 35 10 Bayer
Hanson S. Gifford III [136] 350  USA 1986-2020 35 10 Medtronic
Ajith K. Kumar [137] 347  India 1984-2020 37 9 GE
Keith R. Walker [138] 347  Saudi Arabia 2003-2020 18 19 IBM
Wesley B. Legette [139] 342  USA 2011-2020 10 34 IBM
Siddharth S. Oroskar [140] 341  India 2010-2020 11 31 Sprint
John M. Ganci [141] 340  USA 2009-2020 12 28 IBM
Daniel J. Winarski [142] 339  USA 1982-2020 39 9 IBM
Steven L. Teig [143] 337  USA 1995-2020 26 13 Cadence Design Systems
Kulvir S. Bhogal [144] 330  USA 2003-2020 18 18 IBM
Andrew D. Baptist [145] 330  USA 2012-2020 9 37 IBM
Jasinder P. Singh [146] 324  USA 2010-2020 11 29 Sprint
Liang Liu [147] 321  China 2005-2020 16 20 Hon Hai
Frank J. Viola [148] 315  USA 1981-2019 39 8 Covidien
Victor S. Moore [149] 314  USA 1982-2019 38 8 IBM
Paul K. Dellock [150] 313  USA 2002-2020 19 16 Ford
Victoria Smith [151] 308  USA 2006-2017 12 26 Genentech
Cyprian E. Uzoh [152] 306  Nigeria 1998-2020 23 13 Invensas
Ramachandra Divakaruni [153] 302  USA 2000-2020 21 14 IBM
Robert G. LeTourneau [154] 299  USA 1936-1968 33 9 LeTourneau Technologies
Andrew J. Ouderkirk [155] 297  USA 1989-2020 32 9 3M
Bor Z. Jang [156] 294  USA 1996-2020 25 12 Nanotek Instruments
William R. Tonti [157] 292  USA 1994-2020 27 11 IBM
Dorin Comaniciu [158] 291  USA 2003-2020 18 16 Siemens
Zine-Eddine Boutaghou [159] 290  Algeria 1994-2018 25 12 Seagate Technology
Daniel C. Edelstein [160] 290  USA 1991-2020 30 10 IBM
Adam Heller [161] 288  Romania 1968-2020 53 5 Abbott Laboratories
Jeffrey W. Sleight [162] 288  USA 1998-2020 23 13 IBM
Sandeep R. Patil [163] 288  India 2008-2020 13 22 IBM
Madhusudan K. Iyengar [164] 287  India 2005-2020 16 18 IBM
Brent Keeth [165] 286  USA 1994-2020 27 11 Micron
Christopher B. Locke [166] 286  UK 2010-2020 11 26 KCI
Paul R. Bastide [167] 283  USA 2013-2020 8 35 IBM
Michael A. Rothman [168] 278  USA 2001-2020 20 14 Intel
Christopher J. Dawson [169] 275  USA 2006-2020 15 18 IBM
Aruna Zhamu [170] 274  USA 2009-2020 12 23 Nanotek Instruments
Takeshi Chujoh [171] 270  Japan 1995-2020 26 10 Toshiba
Bran Ferren [172] 269  USA 1986-2020 35 8 Intellectual Ventures
Hartley Owen [173] 267  USA 1976-2010 35 8 Mobil
Craig E. Hampel [174] 266  USA 1996-2020 25 11 Rambus
Michael L. Fripp [175] 266  USA 2004-2020 17 16 Halliburton
Rajiv V. Joshi [176] 262  USA 1986-2020 35 7 IBM
Zvi Or-Bach [177] 262  USA 1982-2020 39 7 MonolithIC 3D Inc.
Yoshihiro Kikuchi [178] 258  Japan 1994-2018 25 10 Toshiba
Hui Zang [179] 258  USA 2014-2020 7 37 GlobalFoundries
Harry (Tom) Graef [180] 256  USA 1976-2020 45 6 Diebold Nixdorf
Santokh S. Badesha [181] 253  India 1983-2020 38 7 Xerox
Imad Libbus [182] 249  USA 2007-2020 14 18 Cardiac Pacemakers
Johnny M. Shieh [183] 247  USA 1996-2020 25 10 IBM
Nobuyuki Taniguchi [184] 245  Japan 1979-2015 37 7 Minolta
Sheldon K. Meredith [185] 245  USA 1996-2020 25 10 AT&T
Louis B. Rosenberg [186] 243  USA 1995-2020 26 9 Immersion
Philip S. Yu [187] 240  USA 1982-2018 37 6 IBM
Dale W. Malik [188] 239  USA 1995-2020 26 9 AT&T
James R. Kraemer [189] 238  USA 2008-2020 13 18 IBM
Seung H. Kang [190] 236  USA 2002-2020 19 12 Qualcomm
Thomas J. Kennedy III [191] 236  USA 1992-2020 29 8 Callaway
Gerald F. McBrearty [192] 234  USA 1997-2020 24 10 IBM
Ilya Volvovski [193] 233  Russia 2011-2020 10 23 IBM
Mark A. Horowitz [194] 231  USA 1993-2020 28 8 Rambus
Stephen G. Perlman [195] 229  USA 1989-2020 32 7 Sony
Martin G. Keen [196] 227  UK 2016-2020 5 45 IBM
Dureseti Chidambarrao [197] 224  USA 1995-2020 26 9 IBM
James W. Seaman [198] 222  USA 2005-2020 16 14 IBM
Paul Ian Mackey [199] 220  Australia 2008-2016 9 24 Silverbrook Research
Maulik K. Shah [200] 220  USA 2011-2020 10 22 Sprint
Ilyas Mohammed [201] 219  USA 2003-2020 18 12 Tessera
Benzion Landa [202] 219  Israel 1976-2020 45 5 Savin
Mukta Ghate Farooq [203] 218  India 1993-2020 28 8 IBM
John A. Colgrove [204] 218  USA 1991-2020 30 7 Pure Storage
Vijay Narayanan [205] 218  USA 2004-2020 17 13 IBM
S. Christopher Gladwin [206] 216  USA 1999-2020 22 10 IBM
David C. Gibbon [207] 214  USA 1995-2020 26 8 AT&T
Jonathan J. Hull [208] 213  USA 1995-2020 26 8 Ricoh
Sebastian T. Ventrone [209] 213  USA 1989-2020 32 7 IBM
Jed H. Rankin [210] 212  USA 2000-2020 21 10 IBM
Rajarshi Gupta [211] 211  India 2004-2020 17 12 Qualcomm
Shuji Nakamura [212] 211  Japan 1994-2020 27 8 UC Santa Barbara
Gregory J. McAvoy [213] 210  Ireland 2003-2020 18 12 Silverbrook Research
Hiroshi (You) Yoshioka [214] 205  Japan 1997-2015 19 11 Toshiba
Patrick B. Usoro [215] 205  USA 1999-2016 18 11 General Motors
Robert E. Fischell [216] 205  USA 1963-2020 58 4 Angel Medical Systems
Arup Bhattacharyya [217] 204  India 1974-2020 47 4 Micron
Steven J. Simske [218] 203  USA 2007-2020 14 14 HP
Sadeg M. Faris [219] 202  Libya 1979-2018 40 5 Reveo
Paul W. Coteus [220] 202  USA 1992-2020 29 7 IBM
Rhonda L. Childress [221] 200  USA 2004-2020 17 12 IBM

This table is usually updated every Tuesday evening in US Eastern time, and is current as of August 11, 2020.

The columns are defined as follows:

  • Inventor: The name of the inventor.
  • Patents: 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.
  • Country: The country of birth or upbringing of the inventor, where known. If unknown, this is the country of residence identified in the inventor's patent filings.
  • Patent Years: The first and last year in which an inventor received a patent issuance.
  • Years: The number of years between and including the first and last year in which an inventor received a patent issuance.
  • Patents / Year: The average number of patents received per year [Patents column divided by Years column, rounded].
  • 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.

Threshold for inclusion

As the average number of patents per inventor is around 3, some sources define prolific inventors as five times above the average (in terms of patents), leading to a threshold of 15 patents.[222] However, this table currently has an arbitrary cut-off limit for inclusion of 200 patents. This is purely for practical reasons – there are tens of thousands of inventors with more than 15 patents. The threshold of 200 patents means that some famous prolific inventors such as Nikola Tesla are not included in this list, as Tesla had 111 patents.[223][224]

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.

The common symbol for inventiveness, the light bulb, is an example. The first incandescent light bulb was invented by British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1802. Many subsequent inventors improved Davy's invention prior to the successful commercialization of electric lighting by Thomas Edison in 1880, 78 years later. Electric lighting continued to be developed. Edison's carbon filament light bulb was made obsolete by the tungsten filament light bulb, invented in 1904 by Sándor Just and Franjo Hanaman. It is this that forms the popular conception of a light bulb, though there are other major forms of lighting. The principle of fluorescent lights was known since 1845, and various inventors, including Edison and Nikola Tesla worked on them without commercial success. Various improvements were made by many other inventors, until General Electric introduced "fluorescent lumiline lamps" commercially in 1938, first available to the public at the 1939 World's Fair. LED lamps also have a long history, with the first light-emitting diode (LED) invented in 1927 by Oleg Losev. LEDs were initially of low brightness, and have been used as indicator lamps and seven-segment displays since 1968. It wasn't until the development of high efficiency blue LEDs by Shuji Nakamura in the 1980s that white LEDs for lighting applications became practical. Although higher cost than incandescent light bulbs, LEDs have higher efficiency and longer life and may finally displace light bulbs in general lighting applications. In each case, more than 50 years passed between the initial invention and commercial success in general lighting applications.

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.[225] 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.

In January 1936, Popular Science published a list of the "most prolific living inventors to be found in America today".

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 John F. O'Connor 949
2 Elihu Thomson 696
3 Carleton Ellis 648
4 Henry A. Wise Wood 434
5 John Hays Hammond Jr. 360
6 Clyde C. Farmer 344
7 Ethan I. Dodds 321
8 Edward Weston 309

Thomas Edison was not included in the list, as he died in 1931, five years earlier.

Time Magazine (2000)

On December 4, 2000, Time Magazine published a list of the "top five inventors".

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Thomas Edison 1,093
2 Melvin De Groote 925
3 Francis H. Richards 894
4 Elihu Thomson 696
5 Jerome Lemelson 554

This list only included U.S. inventors, so omitted Canadian inventor George Albert Lyon, with 993 U.S. patents at the time of publication, Japanese inventor Shunpei Yamazaki, with 745 U.S. patents, and Béla Barényi, with 595 German patents. Also omitted were John F. O'Connor with 949 U.S. patents, and Carleton Ellis, with 753 U.S. patents at the time of publication.

USA Today (2005)

On December 13, 2005, USA Today published a list of "the top 10 living U.S. patent holders":[226]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Shunpei Yamazaki 1,432
2 Donald Weder 1,322
3 Kia Silverbrook 810
4 George Spector 723
5 Gurtej Sandhu 576
6 Warren Farnworth 547
7 Salman Akram 527
8 Mark Gardner 512
9 Heinz Focke 508
10 Joseph Straeter 477

This research was performed by ipIQ of Chicago (now "The Patent Board"[227]) and 1790 Analytics[228] of New Jersey. This list only considered living inventors, and thus did not include prolific inventors such as Thomas Edison, Melvin De Groote, and Elihu Thomson. This list included design patents, which are not patents for inventions.

Condé Nast Portfolio (2007)

On October 15, 2007, Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine published a list[229] of "the world's most prolific inventors alive":

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Shunpei Yamazaki 1,811
2 Kia Silverbrook 1,646
3 Donald Weder 1,350
4 George Spector 722
5 Gurtej Sandhu 674
6 Leonard Forbes 671
7 Warren Farnworth 635
8 Salman Akram 612
9 Mark Gardner 515
10 Joseph Straeter 485

This research was performed by The Patent Board,[227] a Chicago patent research and advisory firm. As with the USA Today list, the Portfolio list only considered living inventors, and thus did not include such prolific inventors as Thomas Edison. This list also included design patents, which are not patents for inventions.

Business Insider (2011)

On May 6, 2011, Business Insider published an article titled: "The Ten Greatest Inventors In The Modern Era"[3] containing the following list:

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 3,847
2 Shunpei Yamazaki 2,061
3 Thomas Edison 1,084
4 George Albert Lyon 993
5 Paul Lapstun 969
6 Donald Weder 951
7 John F. O'Connor 949
8 Leonard Forbes 948
9 Melvin De Groote 925
10 Francis H. Richards 894

This list included living and dead inventors, and only included granted utility patents (patents for inventions).

Strutpatent.com (2012)

Strutpatent.com publishes a list of the "Top 10 Inventors"[230] listing inventors ranked by US patents (of all types) issued since 1990:

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 4,279
2 Shunpei Yamazaki 1,664
3 Donald Weder 1,310
4 Paul Lapstun 1,098
5 Leonard Forbes 959
6 Gurtej Sandhu 728
7 Warren Farnworth 685
8 Salman Akram 653
9 Jay Walker 644
10 Chang-Hwan Hwang 634

This list included only patents granted since 1990, and includes design patents as well as utility patents.

Annual lists (2007–2012)

Strutpatent.com publishes weekly, monthly, and annual lists of the top ten categories, inventors and assignees of US patents since 2007. These lists include all patent types, not just patents for inventions (utility patents).

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2007:[231]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 502
2 Audrey Goddard 232
3 William I. Wood 232
4 Austin L. Gurney 225
5 Chang-Hwan Hwang 203
6 Paul J. Godowski 193
7 Shunpei Yamazaki 139
8 Paul Lapstun 129
9 Leonard Forbes 120
10 Victoria Smith 112

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2008:[232]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 576
2 Chang-Hwan Hwang 198
3 Audrey Goddard 168
4 Austin L. Gurney 167
5 William I. Wood 166
6 Paul J. Godowski 153
7 Shunpei Yamazaki 143
8 Paul Lapstun 137
9 Chang-Soo Lee 129
10 Victoria Smith 122

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2009:[233]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 444
2 Shunpei Yamazaki 137
3 Paul Lapstun 113
4 Bartley K. Andre 92
5 Daniele De Iuliis 92
6 Jonathan Ive 92
7 Matthew Rohrbach 92
8 Richard P. Howarth 91
9 Duncan Robert Kerr 91
10 Leonard Forbes 91

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2010:[234]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 709
2 Paul Lapstun 191
3 Shunpei Yamazaki 162
4 Simon Walmsley 115
5 Bartley K. Andre 114
6 Matthew Rohrbach 109
7 Richard P. Howarth 108
8 Jonathan Ive 108
9 Duncan Robert Kerr 108
10 Daniel J. Coster 106

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2011:[235]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 754
2 Paul Lapstun 268
3 Shunpei Yamazaki 163
4 Hideo Ando 162
5 You Yoshioka 153
6 Scott H. Wittkopp 126
7 James M. Hart 125
8 Edward Jung 112
9 Simon Walmsley 112
10 Jay S. Walker 99

The top ten inventors of US patents for 2012:[236]

Rank Inventor U.S. Patents
1 Kia Silverbrook 220
2 Edward Jung 180
3 Shunpei Yamazaki 172
4 Lowell Wood 169
5 Roderick Hyde 140
6 Bin Li 124
7 Royce Levien 122
8 Mark Malamud 119
9 Shunpei Yamazaki 118
10 John Rinaldo 117

This table omitted Rick Allen Hamilton II. The USPTO database shows Hamilton was an inventor or co-inventor of 128 US patents granted in 2012,[237] which would place Hamilton at 6th rank for 2012.

Differences between lists

Differences in patent numbers between the various lists are due to several reasons:

  • The lists were created on different dates. As many of the inventors in the lists are still active, the number of patents they hold are increasing.
  • While the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the primary source for U.S. patent information, only patents issued since 1976 can be electronically searched by the inventor's name at the USPTO website. For some of the listed inventors, such as Thomas Edison, all of their patents predate 1976, so other sources must be used.
  • Often entities list the worldwide total number of patents that they hold. This is not the same as the number of inventions, as a patent in one country may be for the same invention as a patent in another country. The set of patents covering a single invention in different countries is a Patent family.
  • The Time, USA Today and Portfolio lists show the total number of U.S. patents, including patents for designs (Design patents) as well as patents for inventions (Utility patents).
  • The annual lists from strutpatent.com list only those patents issued in the particular year to the inventor, not all of the inventor's patents.

See also

References
  1. Thomas Alva Edison Biography at Rutgers University
  2. List of Edison patents
  3. The Ten Greatest Inventors In The Modern Era Business Insider, 6 May 2011
  4. The True Inventor Basson-Booyens website
  5. Patents of Shunpei Yamazaki
  6. Patents of Kia Silverbrook
  7. Patents of Kangguo Cheng
  8. Patents of Lowell L. Wood, Jr.
  9. Patents of Roderick A. Hyde
  10. Patents of Jun Koyama
  11. Patents of Gurtej Sandhu
  12. Patents of Paul Lapstun
  13. Patents of Clarence T. Tegreene
  14. Patents of Shou-Shan Fan
  15. Patents of Leonard Forbes
  16. Patents of Edward K. Y. Jung
  17. Patents of Thomas Edison
  18. Patents of Donald E. Weder
  19. Patents of George Albert Lyon
  20. Patents of Rick Allen Hamilton II
  21. Patents of Jordin T. Kare
  22. Patents of Jay S. Walker
  23. Patents of Michael J. Sullivan
  24. Patents of John F. O'Connor
  25. Patents of Melvin De Groote
  26. Patents of Francis H. Richards
  27. Patents of Nathan Myhrvold
  28. Patents of Mark Malamud
  29. Patents of Ahmadreza Rofougaran
  30. Patents of Robert W. Lord
  31. Patents of Royce A. Levien
  32. Patents of William H. Eby
  33. Patents of Muriel Y. Ishikawa
  34. Patents of Warren Farnworth
  35. Patents of Salman Akram
  36. Patents of Jason K. Resch
  37. Patents of Carleton Ellis
  38. Patents of Jeyhan Karaoguz
  39. Patents of Michael K. Gschwind
  40. Patents of Hideo Ando
  41. Patents of Ali Khakifirooz
  42. Patents of George Spector
  43. Patents of Austin L. Gurney
  44. Patents of Clifford A. Pickover
  45. Patents of John M. Santosuosso
  46. Patents of Tetsujiro Kondo
  47. Patents of Elihu Thomson
  48. Patents of Bruce B. Doris
  49. Patents of Devendra K. Sadana
  50. Patents of Eric C. Leuthardt
  51. Patents of William I. Wood
  52. Patents of Simon R. Walmsley
  53. Patents of Chih-Chao Yang
  54. Patents of Edward J. Nowak
  55. Patents of Audrey D. Goddard
  56. Patents of Ruilong Xie
  57. Patents of Kie Y. Ahn
  58. Patents of Jerome H. Lemelson
  59. Patents of Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  60. Patents of Tadahiro Ohmi
  61. Patents of Béla Barényi
  62. Patents of Paul J. Godowski
  63. Patents of Gregory J. Boss
  64. Patents of Artur Fischer
  65. Patents of Jeffrey P. Gambino
  66. Patents of Victoria Y. H. Wood
  67. Patents of Irwin Gerszberg
  68. Patents of Louis L. Hsu
  69. Patents of Anthony K. Stamper
  70. Patents of Lisa Seacat DeLuca
  71. Patents of Ronald S. Cok
  72. Patents of Edwin H. Land
  73. Patents of Kai-Li Jiang
  74. Patents of Paul S. Henry
  75. Patents of Robert S. Langer
  76. Patents of Henri Dreyfus
  77. Patents of Belgacem Haba
  78. Patents of Clyde C. Farmer
  79. Patents of Heinz Focke
  80. Patents of Mark I. Gardner
  81. Patents of Ravi K. Arimilli
  82. Patents of Louis H. Morin
  83. Patents of Tobin A. King
  84. Patents of Esmael H. Dinan
  85. Patents of James M. Hart
  86. Patents of Frederick A. Ware
  87. Patents of Jack A. Mandelman
  88. Patents of Stuart C. Salter
  89. Patents of Brian M. O'Connell
  90. Patents of Pouya Hashemi
  91. Patents of John L. Melanson
  92. Patents of Akira Nakazawa
  93. Patents of Lawrence A. Clevenger
  94. Patents of Farhad Barzegar
  95. Patents of Eberhard Ammermann
  96. Patents of Thomas E. Murray
  97. Patents of Vincent J. Zimmer
  98. Patents of Hongyong Zhang
  99. Patents of Brent A. Anderson
  100. Patents of Scott H. Wittkopp
  101. Patents of Thomas M. Willis III
  102. Patents of Xuemin (Sherman) Chen
  103. Patents of Valentina Salapura
  104. Patents of John Hays Hammond, Jr.
  105. Patents of Hossein Eslambolchi
  106. Patents of Cary L. Bates
  107. Patents of Wilhelm Brandes
  108. Patents of Stanford R. Ovshinsky
  109. Patents of Gary W. Grube
  110. Patents of Bengt Lindoff
  111. Patents of Michael (S.) Tsirkin
  112. Patents of Josef Theurer
  113. Patents of David V. Horak
  114. Patents of Paul W. Dent
  115. Patents of Wael W. Diab
  116. Patents of George P. Liang
  117. Patents of Hans-Joachim Santel
  118. Patents of Jeffrey E. Stahmann
  119. Patents of Gisela Lorenz
  120. Patents of Robert Bennett
  121. Patents of Donald J. Barnickel
  122. Patents of Timothy J. Slegel
  123. Patents of Elizabeth A. Sweeney
  124. Patents of William Daniel Hillis
  125. Patents of Garry R. Jackson
  126. Patents of Assaf Natanzon
  127. Patents of Carl J. Radens
  128. Patents of Greg R. Dhuse
  129. Patents of Dean L. Kamen
  130. Patents of George Westinghouse
  131. Patents of Norman M. Berry
  132. Patents of James E. Bostick
  133. Patents of Philip D. Nguyen
  134. Patents of Mark W. Kroll
  135. Patents of Robert R. Schmidt
  136. Patents of Hanson S. Gifford III
  137. Patents of Ajith K. Kumar
  138. Patents of Keith R. Walker
  139. Patents of Wesley B. Legette
  140. Patents of Siddharth S. Oroskar
  141. Patents of John M. Ganci
  142. Patents of Daniel J. Winarski
  143. Patents of Steven L. Teig
  144. Patents of Kulvir S. Bhogal
  145. Patents of Andrew D. Baptist
  146. Patents of Jasinder P. Singh
  147. Patents of Liang Liu
  148. Patents of Frank J. Viola
  149. Patents of Victor S. Moore
  150. Patents of Paul K. Dellock
  151. Patents of Victoria Smith
  152. Patents of Cyprian E. Uzoh
  153. Patents of Ramachandra Divakaruni
  154. Patents of Robert G. LeTourneau
  155. Patents of Andrew J. Ouderkirk
  156. Patents of Bor Z. Jang
  157. Patents of William R. Tonti
  158. Patents of Dorin Comaniciu
  159. Patents of Zine-Eddine Boutaghou
  160. Patents of Daniel C. Edelstein
  161. Patents of Adam Heller
  162. Patents of Jeffrey W. Sleight
  163. Patents of Sandeep R. Patil
  164. Patents of Madhusudan K. Iyengar
  165. Patents of Brent Keeth
  166. Patents of Christopher B. Locke
  167. Patents of Paul R. Bastide
  168. Patents of Michael A. Rothman
  169. Patents of Christopher J. Dawson
  170. Patents of Aruna Zhamu
  171. Patents of Takeshi Chujoh
  172. Patents of Bran Ferren
  173. Patents of Hartley Owen
  174. Patents of Craig E. Hampel
  175. Patents of Michael L. Fripp
  176. Patents of Rajiv V. Joshi
  177. Patents of Zvi Or-Bach
  178. Patents of Yoshihiro Kikuchi
  179. Patents of Hui Zang
  180. Patents of Harry (Tom) Graef
  181. Patents of Santokh S. Badesha
  182. Patents of Imad Libbus
  183. Patents of Johnny M. Shieh
  184. Patents of Nobuyuki Taniguchi
  185. Patents of Sheldon K. Meredith
  186. Patents of Louis B. Rosenberg
  187. Patents of Philip S. Yu
  188. Patents of Dale W. Malik
  189. Patents of James R. Kraemer
  190. Patents of Seung H. Kang
  191. Patents of Thomas J. Kennedy III
  192. Patents of Gerald F. McBrearty
  193. Patents of Ilya Volvovski
  194. Patents of Mark A. Horowitz
  195. Patents of Stephen G. Perlman
  196. Patents of Martin G. Keen
  197. Patents of Dureseti Chidambarrao
  198. Patents of James W. Seaman
  199. Patents of Paul Ian Mackey
  200. Patents of Maulik K. Shah
  201. Patents of Ilyas Mohammed
  202. Patents of Benzion Landa
  203. Patents of Mukta Ghate Farooq
  204. Patents of John A. Colgrove
  205. Patents of Vijay Narayanan
  206. Patents of S. Christopher Gladwin
  207. Patents of David C. Gibbon
  208. Patents of Jonathan J. Hull
  209. Patents of Sebastian T. Ventrone
  210. Patents of Jed H. Rankin
  211. Patents of Rajarshi Gupta
  212. Patents of Shuji Nakamura
  213. Patents of Gregory J. McAvoy
  214. Patents of Hiroshi (You) Yoshioka
  215. Patents of Patrick B. Usoro
  216. Patents of Robert E. Fischell
  217. Patents of Arup Bhattacharyya
  218. Patents of Steven J. Simske
  219. Patents of Sadeg M. Faris
  220. Patents of Paul W. Coteus
  221. Patents of Rhonda L. Childress
  222. Prolific Inventors: Who are They and Where do They Locate? International Centre for Economic Research Working Paper No. 14/2010
  223. List of Nikola Tesla patents
  224. Jim Bieberich's Complete Nikola Tesla U.S. Patent Collection
  225. USPTO publication: Prolific Inventors Receiving Utility Patents 1988-1997
  226. You really can find identities of top patent holders USA Today, Dec 13, 2005
  227. The Patent Board website
  228. 1790 Analytics website
  229. Masters of invention Portfolio, October 15, 2007
  230. Strutpatent list of the top 10 inventors since 1990
  231. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2007 StrutPatent.com website
  232. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2008 StrutPatent.com website
  233. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2009 StrutPatent.com website
  234. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2010 StrutPatent.com website
  235. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2011 StrutPatent.com website
  236. List of the top ten US patent grantees for 2012 StrutPatent.com website
  237. USPTO Utility Patent Search for Rick Allen Hamilton II for 2012
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