List of prolific inventors

Short description: none

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.

## Contents

* 1 Prolific Inventors
* 2 Significance of inventions
* 3 Various published lists
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 References of Inventors' Patents

## Prolific Inventors

Inventor  | Pats | Fams | Fam % | Pat Yrs | Yrs | Pat /Yr | Inv /Pat | Pat Residence | Majority Assignment

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Shunpei Yamazaki | [1] | 6267 | 2787 | 44.5% | 1972—2024 | 51.8 | 121 | 3.6 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kia Silverbrook | [2] | 4747 | 1311 | 27.6% | 1994—2014 | 20 | 237 | 1.6 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Tao Luo | [3] | 2891 | 2424 | 83.8% | 2006—2024 | 17.7 | 163 | 5.6 |  USA | Qualcomm
Kangguo Cheng | [4] | 2712 | 1479 | 54.5% | 2004—2024 | 19.2 | 141 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Frederick E. Shelton IV | [5] | 2163 | 1050 | 48.5% | 2005—2024 | 18.6 | 116 | 4.5 |  USA | Ethicon
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. | [6] | 1991 | 1323 | 66.4% | 1971—2024 | 52.2 | 38 | 8.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Peter Gaal | [7] | 1951 | 1505 | 77.1% | 2002—2024 | 21.4 | 91 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Junyi Li | [8] | 1925 | 1628 | 84.6% | 2002—2024 | 21.2 | 91 | 5.2 |  USA | Qualcomm
Roderick A. Hyde | [9] | 1888 | 1252 | 66.3% | 2001—2023 | 22.5 | 84 | 8.7 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Wanshi Chen | [10] | 1863 | 1450 | 77.8% | 2009—2024 | 14.7 | 127 | 5.7 |  USA | Qualcomm
Chen-Hua Yu | [11] | 1652 | 915 | 55.4% | 1996—2024 | 27.6 | 60 | 4.9 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Hanbyul Seo | [12] | 1547 | 1138 | 73.6% | 2012—2024 | 11.7 | 132 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Jun Koyama | [13] | 1476 | 618 | 41.9% | 1991—2023 | 32.4 | 46 | 3.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Gurtej Singh Sandhu | [14] | 1417 | 585 | 41.3% | 1991—2024 | 32.5 | 44 | 2.5 |  USA | Micron
Xiaoxia Zhang | [15] | 1395 | 1227 | 88.0% | 2009—2024 | 15 | 93 | 5.5 |  USA | Qualcomm
Esmael H. Dinan | [16] | 1331 | 592 | 44.5% | 2006—2024 | 17.6 | 76 | 3.6 |  USA | Ofinno
Shou-Shan Fan | [17] | 1309 | 1095 | 83.7% | 2006—2024 | 17.7 | 74 | 4.2 |  China | Hon Hai
Paul Lapstun | [18] | 1304 | 246 | 18.9% | 2000—2023 | 23 | 57 | 2.5 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Clarence T. Tegreene | [19] | 1245 | 902 | 72.4% | 2000—2024 | 23.1 | 54 | 10.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Alexander Reznicek | [20] | 1222 | 727 | 59.5% | 2006—2024 | 17.8 | 69 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Sarbajit K. Rakshit | [21] | 1198 | 984 | 82.1% | 2013—2024 | 11 | 109 | 3.4 |  India | IBM
Jing Sun | [22] | 1166 | 1002 | 85.9% | 2012—2024 | 11.1 | 105 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Satoshi Seo | [23] | 1119 | 533 | 47.6% | 2002—2024 | 21.1 | 53 | 4.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Leonard Forbes | [24] | 1109 | 411 | 37.1% | 1975—2019 | 43.3 | 26 | 2.6 |  USA | Micron
Edward K. Y. Jung | [25] | 1109 | 794 | 71.6% | 1996—2023 | 27.4 | 40 | 8.0 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Kijun Kim | [26] | 1103 | 779 | 70.6% | 2013—2024 | 10.1 | 109 | 4.6 |  South Korea | LG
Thomas Edison | [27] | 1084 | NA | NA | 1869—1933 | 63.9 | 17 | 1.0 |  USA | Thomas Edison
Rick Allen Hamilton II | [28] | 1061 | 713 | 67.2% | 1999—2024 | 24.8 | 43 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Suckchel Yang | [29] | 1055 | 677 | 64.2% | 2013—2024 | 10.5 | 100 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Joonkui Ahn | [30] | 1045 | 680 | 65.1% | 2013—2024 | 10.5 | 100 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Marta Karczewicz | [31] | 1009 | 834 | 82.7% | 2000—2024 | 23.1 | 44 | 4.0 |  USA | Qualcomm
Donald E. Weder | [32] | 1000 | 395 | 39.5% | 1978—2015 | 37.1 | 27 | 1.1 |  USA | Weder Family Trust
George Albert Lyon | [33] | 993 | NA | NA | 1901—1965 | 64.5 | 15 | 1.0 |  Canada | Lyon George Albert
Michael J. Sullivan | [34] | 992 | 534 | 53.8% | 1989—2024 | 34.5 | 29 | 3.8 |  USA | Acushnet Holdings
Jordin T. Kare | [35] | 986 | 640 | 64.9% | 1992—2023 | 30.7 | 32 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Jason K. Resch | [36] | 978 | 497 | 50.8% | 2009—2024 | 14.4 | 68 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Shan Liu | [37] | 978 | 680 | 69.5% | 2013—2024 | 10.4 | 94 | 3.4 |  USA | Tencent
Jay S. Walker | [38] | 977 | 421 | 43.1% | 1998—2023 | 25.1 | 39 | 5.2 |  USA | Walker Digital
Ruilong Xie | [39] | 968 | 718 | 74.2% | 2013—2024 | 11 | 88 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Juan Montojo | [40] | 957 | 775 | 81.0% | 2004—2024 | 19.9 | 48 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Yunjung Yi | [41] | 955 | 682 | 71.4% | 2015—2024 | 8.2 | 116 | 3.3 |  South Korea | LG
John F. O'Connor | [42] | 949 | NA | NA | 1901—1935 | 33.9 | 28 | NA |  USA | William H. Miner
Ahmadreza Rofougaran | [43] | 940 | 456 | 48.5% | 2002—2023 | 21.5 | 44 | 6.4 |  USA | Broadcom
Melvin De Groote | [44] | 925 | NA | NA | 1924—1966 | 41.8 | 22 | NA |  USA | Petrolite
Jason L. Harris | [45] | 915 | 569 | 62.2% | 2011—2024 | 13 | 70 | 6.0 |  USA | Ethicon
Tingfang Ji | [46] | 912 | 678 | 74.3% | 2006—2024 | 17.5 | 52 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
David R. Hall | [47] | 905 | 750 | 82.9% | 1985—2024 | 38.5 | 24 | 3.8 |  USA | Hall Labs
Nathan Myhrvold | [48] | 904 | 612 | 67.7% | 1994—2023 | 29.1 | 31 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
William H. Eby | [49] | 898 | 894 | 99.6% | 1994—2024 | 29.7 | 30 | 1.2 |  USA | Monsanto
Francis H. Richards | [50] | 894 | NA | NA | 1899—1930 | 30.8 | 29 | NA |  USA | Francis H. Richards
Takahiro Nishi | [51] | 886 | 334 | 37.7% | 2001—2024 | 22.4 | 40 | 6.3 |  Japan | Panasonic
Mark Malamud | [52] | 885 | 690 | 78.0% | 1997—2023 | 25.9 | 34 | 7.5 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Robert W. Lord | [53] | 865 | 681 | 78.7% | 2003—2023 | 19.4 | 45 | 7.6 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hajime Kimura | [54] | 855 | 279 | 32.6% | 2002—2024 | 21.2 | 40 | 2.6 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Royce A. Levien | [55] | 854 | 666 | 78.0% | 1997—2023 | 25.9 | 33 | 6.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Muriel Y. Ishikawa | [56] | 838 | 560 | 66.8% | 2002—2023 | 21.2 | 40 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hongyuan Zhang | [57] | 835 | 463 | 55.4% | 2009—2024 | 14.7 | 57 | 3.9 |  USA | Marvell
Michael K. Gschwind | [58] | 834 | 442 | 53.0% | 2001—2023 | 22 | 38 | 2.6 |  USA | IBM
Clifford A. Pickover | [59] | 829 | 546 | 65.9% | 1992—2024 | 31.8 | 26 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Lee D. Whetsel | [60] | 826 | 128 | 15.5% | 1991—2024 | 32.8 | 25 | 1.1 |  USA | Texas Instruments
Seungmin Lee | [61] | 820 | 602 | 73.4% | 2014—2024 | 9.3 | 88 | 3.5 |  South Korea | LG
Chih-Chao Yang | [62] | 819 | 506 | 61.8% | 2003—2024 | 20.1 | 41 | 3.4 |  USA | IBM
Devendra K. Sadana | [63] | 802 | 452 | 56.4% | 1983—2024 | 40.9 | 20 | 4.3 |  USA | IBM
Salman Akram | [64] | 782 | 290 | 37.1% | 1995—2024 | 28.6 | 27 | 2.9 |  USA | Micron
SungDuck Chun | [65] | 779 | 472 | 60.6% | 2007—2024 | 16.1 | 48 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Warren M. Farnworth | [66] | 774 | 289 | 37.3% | 1990—2020 | 24.4 | 32 | 2.8 |  USA | Micron
Bruce B. Doris | [67] | 763 | 433 | 56.7% | 1995—2023 | 28.7 | 27 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jeyhan Karaoguz | [68] | 756 | 371 | 49.1% | 1996—2020 | 23.8 | 32 | 4.6 |  USA | Broadcom
Carleton Ellis | [69] | 753 | NA | NA | 1902—1946 | 43.1 | 17 | NA |  USA | Ellis Foster Co
Ali Khakifirooz | [70] | 749 | 405 | 54.1% | 2011—2023 | 12 | 62 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
John M. Santosuosso | [71] | 737 | 466 | 63.2% | 2001—2023 | 21.4 | 34 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Hsien-Wei Chen | [72] | 737 | 372 | 50.5% | 2005—2024 | 18.9 | 39 | 3.5 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Hideo Ando | [73] | 733 | 123 | 16.8% | 1983—2020 | 36.7 | 20 | 3.1 |  Japan | Toshiba
George Spector | [74] | 723 | 723 | 100% | 1974—1998 | 24.6 | 29 | 2.1 |  USA | George Spector
Xue Dong | [75] | 722 | 710 | 98.3% | 2010—2024 | 13.1 | 55 | 7.4 |  China | BOE
Youngdae Lee | [76] | 719 | 565 | 78.6% | 2014—2024 | 9.8 | 73 | 3.1 |  South Korea | LG
Austin L. Gurney | [77] | 718 | 182 | 25.3% | 1999—2022 | 21.6 | 33 | 2.9 |  USA | Genentech
Justin T. Mason | [78] | 714 | 710 | 99.4% | 2008—2024 | 15.2 | 47 | 1.0 |  USA | MS Technologies
Stuart C. Salter | [79] | 704 | 659 | 93.6% | 2009—2024 | 14.1 | 50 | 4.8 |  USA | Ford
Gregory J. Boss | [80] | 701 | 479 | 68.3% | 2008—2024 | 15.9 | 44 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Tetsujiro Kondo | [81] | 700 | 528 | 75.4% | 1987—2021 | 34 | 21 | 3.8 |  Japan | Sony
Lisa Seacat DeLuca | [82] | 700 | 507 | 72.4% | 2009—2023 | 14.8 | 47 | 2.7 |  USA | IBM
Shougo Sato | [83] | 699 | 275 | 39.3% | 1992—2024 | 31.3 | 22 | 1.8 |  Japan | Brother
Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur | [84] | 697 | 563 | 80.8% | 2006—2024 | 17.7 | 39 | 2.6 |  France | Cisco Systems
Elihu Thomson | [85] | 696 | NA | NA | 1899—1935 | 35.9 | 19 | NA |  USA | GE
Irwin Gerszberg | [86] | 680 | 312 | 45.9% | 1994—2023 | 29.2 | 23 | 6.8 |  USA | AT&T
Frederick A. Ware | [87] | 679 | 222 | 32.7% | 1981—2024 | 42.1 | 16 | 2.8 |  USA | Rambus
Eric C. Leuthardt | [88] | 674 | 457 | 67.8% | 2006—2023 | 16.7 | 40 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Chung-Shi Liu | [89] | 662 | 373 | 56.3% | 2000—2023 | 23.9 | 28 | 6.1 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Satoshi Nagata | [90] | 658 | 626 | 95.1% | 2011—2024 | 12.3 | 53 | 4.0 |  Japan | NTT
Paul S. Henry | [91] | 656 | 301 | 45.9% | 1978—2023 | 44.9 | 15 | 6.3 |  USA | AT&T
William I. Wood | [92] | 653 | 259 | 39.7% | 1981—2013 | 32.2 | 20 | 5.2 |  USA | Genentech
Simon R. Walmsley | [93] | 651 | 171 | 26.3% | 1995—2012 | 17.2 | 38 | 3.2 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Jae Hoon Chung | [94] | 650 | 381 | 58.6% | 2010—2023 | 13 | 50 | 4.5 |  South Korea | LG
Edward J. Nowak | [95] | 635 | 410 | 64.6% | 1979—2021 | 41.1 | 15 | 3.0 |  USA | IBM
Hui-Ling Lou | [96] | 635 | 344 | 54.2% | 1997—2024 | 26.4 | 24 | 3.9 |  USA | Marvell
Xiaochuan Chen | [97] | 633 | 621 | 98.1% | 2014—2024 | 9.5 | 67 | 7.0 |  China | BOE
Woosuk Ko | [98] | 631 | 238 | 37.7% | 2015—2024 | 8.7 | 73 | 3.4 |  South Korea | LG
Yan Zhou | [99] | 631 | 565 | 89.5% | 2012—2024 | 11.4 | 55 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm
Audrey D. Goddard | [100] | 630 | 154 | 24.4% | 1997—2023 | 26.2 | 24 | 5.3 |  USA | Genentech

This table is usually updated every Tuesday, and is current (As of January 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 [Fams column divided by Pats column, rounded to first decimal as a percentage]. "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 [Pats column divided by Yrs column, rounded].
* Inv / Pat: The average number of inventors listed on the inventor's most recent 50 patents (As of September 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.[Info 1] 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

* Timeline of historic inventions
* List of inventors

## References

1. ↑ "USPTO publication: Prolific Inventors Receiving Utility Patents 1988–1997". http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/inv_prol.pdf.

## References of Inventors' Patents

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

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