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] | 6680 | 2942 | 44.0% | 1972—2026 | 54 | 124 | 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] | 4518 | 3775 | 83.6% | 2006—2026 | 19.8 | 228 | 5.6 |  USA | Qualcomm
Kangguo Cheng | [4] | 2854 | 1587 | 55.6% | 2004—2026 | 21.4 | 133 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Junyi Li | [5] | 2766 | 2339 | 84.6% | 2002—2026 | 23.4 | 118 | 5.2 |  USA | Qualcomm
Frederick E. Shelton IV | [6] | 2709 | 1238 | 45.7% | 2005—2026 | 20.7 | 131 | 4.5 |  USA | Ethicon
Peter Gaal | [7] | 2595 | 2002 | 77.1% | 2002—2026 | 23.6 | 110 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Wanshi Chen | [8] | 2384 | 1831 | 76.8% | 2009—2026 | 16.9 | 141 | 5.7 |  USA | Qualcomm
Xiaoxia Zhang | [9] | 2232 | 1897 | 85.0% | 2009—2026 | 17.2 | 130 | 5.5 |  USA | Qualcomm
Esmael H. Dinan | [10] | 2031 | 839 | 41.3% | 2006—2026 | 19.8 | 103 | 3.6 |  USA | Ofinno
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. | [11] | 2001 | 1328 | 66.4% | 1971—2026 | 54.3 | 37 | 8.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Chen-Hua Yu | [12] | 1932 | 1002 | 51.9% | 1996—2026 | 29.8 | 65 | 4.9 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Roderick A. Hyde | [13] | 1892 | 1252 | 66.2% | 2001—2023 | 22.4 | 84 | 8.7 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Jing Sun | [14] | 1851 | 1553 | 83.9% | 2012—2026 | 13.3 | 139 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Hanbyul Seo | [15] | 1812 | 1353 | 74.7% | 2012—2026 | 13.9 | 130 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Shan Liu | [16] | 1698 | 1090 | 64.2% | 2013—2026 | 12.5 | 136 | 3.4 |  USA | Tencent
Sarbajit K. Rakshit | [17] | 1556 | 1329 | 85.4% | 2013—2026 | 13.2 | 118 | 3.4 |  India | IBM
Jun Koyama | [18] | 1513 | 618 | 40.8% | 1991—2022 | 30.8 | 49 | 3.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Gurtej Singh Sandhu | [19] | 1434 | 584 | 40.7% | 1991—2024 | 32.5 | 44 | 2.5 |  USA | Micron
Yunjung Yi | [20] | 1427 | 962 | 67.4% | 2011—2026 | 15.2 | 94 | 3.3 |  USA | LG
Shou-Shan Fan | [21] | 1317 | 1102 | 83.7% | 2006—2026 | 19.9 | 66 | 4.2 |  China | Hon Hai
Paul Lapstun | [22] | 1306 | 247 | 18.9% | 2000—2026 | 25.2 | 52 | 2.5 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Alexander Reznicek | [23] | 1302 | 795 | 61.1% | 2006—2026 | 19.9 | 65 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Suckchel Yang | [24] | 1297 | 845 | 65.2% | 2013—2026 | 12.7 | 102 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Satoshi Seo | [25] | 1273 | 602 | 47.3% | 2002—2026 | 23.3 | 55 | 4.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Juan Montojo | [26] | 1273 | 1035 | 81.3% | 2004—2026 | 22.1 | 58 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Ruilong Xie | [27] | 1260 | 987 | 78.3% | 2013—2026 | 13.2 | 95 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Clarence T. Tegreene | [28] | 1252 | 904 | 72.2% | 2000—2025 | 24.8 | 50 | 10.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Takahiro Nishi | [29] | 1213 | 401 | 33.1% | 2001—2026 | 24.6 | 49 | 6.3 |  Japan | Panasonic
Jason L. Harris | [30] | 1202 | 667 | 55.5% | 2011—2026 | 15.2 | 79 | 6.0 |  USA | Ethicon
Kijun Kim | [31] | 1184 | 823 | 69.5% | 2013—2026 | 12.2 | 97 | 4.6 |  South Korea | LG
Joonkui Ahn | [32] | 1179 | 766 | 65.0% | 2013—2026 | 12.7 | 93 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Marta Karczewicz | [33] | 1173 | 966 | 82.4% | 2000—2026 | 25.2 | 47 | 4.0 |  USA | Qualcomm
Yan Zhou | [34] | 1162 | 1025 | 88.2% | 2012—2026 | 13.6 | 85 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm
Tingfang Ji | [35] | 1122 | 830 | 74.0% | 2006—2026 | 19.6 | 57 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Edward K. Y. Jung | [36] | 1111 | 794 | 71.5% | 1996—2022 | 26.1 | 43 | 8.0 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Leonard Forbes | [37] | 1109 | 411 | 37.1% | 1975—2019 | 43.3 | 26 | 2.6 |  USA | Micron
Seungmin Lee | [38] | 1099 | 830 | 75.5% | 2014—2026 | 11.4 | 96 | 3.5 |  South Korea | LG
Thomas Edison | [39] | 1084 | NA | NA | 1869—1933 | 63.9 | 17 | 1.0 |  USA | Thomas Edison
Jason K. Resch | [40] | 1066 | 514 | 48.2% | 2009—2026 | 16.6 | 64 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Rick Allen Hamilton II | [41] | 1064 | 715 | 67.2% | 1999—2025 | 26.5 | 40 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Hao Xu | [42] | 1063 | 789 | 74.2% | 2005—2026 | 20.9 | 51 | 4.7 |  China | Qualcomm
Ahmadreza Rofougaran | [43] | 1005 | 484 | 48.2% | 2002—2026 | 23.7 | 42 | 6.4 |  USA | Broadcom
Justin T. Mason | [44] | 1001 | 997 | 99.6% | 2008—2026 | 17.4 | 58 | 1.0 |  USA | MS Technologies
Donald E. Weder | [45] | 1000 | 395 | 39.5% | 1978—2015 | 37.1 | 27 | 1.1 |  USA | Weder Family Trust
Michael J. Sullivan | [46] | 997 | 534 | 53.6% | 1989—2024 | 34.5 | 29 | 3.8 |  USA | Acushnet Holdings
George Albert Lyon | [47] | 993 | NA | NA | 1901—1965 | 64.5 | 15 | 1.0 |  Canada | Lyon George Albert
Jordin T. Kare | [48] | 993 | 640 | 64.5% | 1992—2023 | 30.5 | 33 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Jay S. Walker | [49] | 980 | 422 | 43.1% | 1998—2024 | 26.3 | 37 | 5.2 |  USA | Walker Digital
Satoshi Nagata | [50] | 958 | 921 | 96.1% | 2011—2026 | 14.5 | 66 | 4.0 |  Japan | NTT
Hajime Kimura | [51] | 950 | 303 | 31.9% | 2002—2026 | 23.2 | 41 | 2.6 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kyungmin Park | [52] | 950 | 447 | 47.1% | 2014—2026 | 11.9 | 80 | 5.2 |  USA | Ofinno
John F. O'Connor | [53] | 949 | NA | NA | 1901—1935 | 33.9 | 28 | NA |  USA | William H. Miner
William H. Eby | [54] | 937 | 933 | 99.6% | 1994—2026 | 31.9 | 29 | 1.2 |  USA | Monsanto
David R. Hall | [55] | 927 | 766 | 82.6% | 1985—2026 | 40.7 | 23 | 3.8 |  USA | Hall Labs
Melvin De Groote | [56] | 925 | NA | NA | 1924—1966 | 41.8 | 22 | NA |  USA | Petrolite
Hua Zhou | [57] | 915 | 476 | 52.0% | 2012—2026 | 14.1 | 65 | 5.5 |  USA | Ofinno
Hongyuan Zhang | [58] | 914 | 495 | 54.2% | 2009—2026 | 16.9 | 54 | 3.9 |  USA | Marvell
Nathan Myhrvold | [59] | 909 | 614 | 67.5% | 1994—2025 | 31 | 29 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Francis H. Richards | [60] | 894 | NA | NA | 1899—1930 | 30.8 | 29 | NA |  USA | Francis H. Richards
Stuart C. Salter | [61] | 892 | 838 | 93.9% | 2009—2026 | 16.2 | 55 | 4.8 |  USA | Ford
Chih-Chao Yang | [62] | 891 | 573 | 64.3% | 2003—2026 | 22.3 | 40 | 3.4 |  USA | IBM
Mark Malamud | [63] | 886 | 690 | 77.9% | 1997—2022 | 25.1 | 35 | 7.5 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Robert W. Lord | [64] | 870 | 683 | 78.5% | 2003—2025 | 21.6 | 40 | 7.6 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hsien-Wei Chen | [65] | 864 | 397 | 45.9% | 2005—2026 | 20.9 | 41 | 3.5 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Royce A. Levien | [66] | 855 | 666 | 77.9% | 1997—2020 | 23.4 | 37 | 6.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Lee D. Whetsel | [67] | 851 | 128 | 15.0% | 1991—2017 | 26.4 | 32 | 1.1 |  USA | Texas Instruments
Youngdae Lee | [68] | 851 | 673 | 79.1% | 2014—2026 | 12 | 71 | 3.1 |  South Korea | LG
Muriel Y. Ishikawa | [69] | 840 | 560 | 66.7% | 2002—2023 | 21.2 | 40 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Michael K. Gschwind | [70] | 836 | 442 | 52.9% | 2001—2021 | 20.6 | 41 | 2.6 |  USA | IBM
Clifford A. Pickover | [71] | 836 | 548 | 65.6% | 1992—2024 | 32.2 | 26 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
SungDuck Chun | [72] | 834 | 520 | 62.4% | 2007—2026 | 18.3 | 46 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Devendra K. Sadana | [73] | 828 | 470 | 56.8% | 1983—2025 | 42.6 | 19 | 4.3 |  USA | IBM
Xue Dong | [74] | 807 | 780 | 96.7% | 2010—2026 | 15.2 | 53 | 7.4 |  China | BOE
Salman A. Akram | [75] | 789 | 294 | 37.3% | 1995—2026 | 30.7 | 26 | 2.9 |  USA | Micron
Frederick A. Ware | [76] | 785 | 232 | 29.6% | 1981—2025 | 43.9 | 18 | 2.8 |  USA | Rambus
Warren M. Farnworth | [77] | 774 | 289 | 37.3% | 1990—2014 | 24.4 | 32 | 2.8 |  USA | Micron
James A. Jorasch | [78] | 774 | 309 | 39.9% | 1994—2023 | 29 | 27 | 3.9 |  USA | Walker Digital
Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur | [79] | 768 | 625 | 81.4% | 2006—2026 | 19.9 | 39 | 2.6 |  France | Cisco Systems
Bruce B. Doris | [80] | 767 | 435 | 56.7% | 1995—2025 | 30.3 | 25 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Toshiyasu Sugio | [81] | 767 | 284 | 37.0% | 2009—2026 | 16.5 | 46 | 4.9 |  Japan | Panasonic
Shougo Sato | [82] | 765 | 292 | 38.2% | 1992—2025 | 33 | 23 | 1.8 |  Japan | Brother
Ali Khakifirooz | [83] | 759 | 415 | 54.7% | 2011—2026 | 14.4 | 53 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jeyhan Karaoguz | [84] | 757 | 371 | 49.0% | 1996—2020 | 23.8 | 32 | 4.6 |  USA | Broadcom
Carleton Ellis | [85] | 753 | NA | NA | 1902—1946 | 43.1 | 17 | NA |  USA | Ellis Foster Co
Chung-Shi Liu | [86] | 751 | 396 | 52.7% | 2000—2026 | 26.2 | 29 | 6.1 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Hyoungsuk Jeon | [87] | 749 | 354 | 47.3% | 2009—2026 | 16.3 | 46 | 5.6 |  USA | Ofinno
Jonghyun Park | [88] | 742 | 529 | 71.3% | 2013—2026 | 13.1 | 57 | 3.8 |  USA | LG
John M. Santosuosso | [89] | 738 | 466 | 63.1% | 2001—2022 | 20.7 | 36 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Hideo Ando | [90] | 733 | 123 | 16.8% | 1983—2020 | 36.7 | 20 | 3.1 |  Japan | Toshiba
Lisa Seacat DeLuca | [91] | 725 | 529 | 73.0% | 2009—2026 | 17.1 | 42 | 2.7 |  USA | IBM
George Spector | [92] | 723 | 723 | 100% | 1974—1998 | 24.6 | 29 | 2.1 |  USA | George Spector
Gregory J. Boss | [93] | 720 | 496 | 68.9% | 2008—2026 | 17.9 | 40 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Woosuk Ko | [94] | 720 | 317 | 44.0% | 2015—2026 | 10.9 | 66 | 3.4 |  South Korea | LG
Austin L. Gurney | [95] | 718 | 182 | 25.3% | 1999—2021 | 21.6 | 33 | 2.9 |  USA | Genentech
Xiaochuan Chen | [96] | 707 | 684 | 96.7% | 2014—2026 | 11.6 | 61 | 7.0 |  China | BOE
Tetsujiro Kondo | [97] | 700 | 528 | 75.4% | 1987—2021 | 34 | 21 | 3.8 |  Japan | Sony
Aleksandar Damnjanovic | [98] | 699 | 512 | 73.2% | 2003—2026 | 22.6 | 31 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm
Moon-il Lee | [99] | 698 | 380 | 54.4% | 2010—2026 | 15.3 | 46 | 5.3 |  USA | LG
Elihu Thomson | [100] | 696 | NA | NA | 1899—1935 | 35.9 | 19 | NA |  USA | GE
Eric C. Leuthardt | [101] | 695 | 468 | 67.3% | 2006—2026 | 19.4 | 36 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures

This table is usually updated every Tuesday, and is current as of March 31, 2026[update].

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 7, 2021[update] 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. ↑ Junyi Li
6. ↑ Frederick E. Shelton IV
7. ↑ Peter Gaal
8. ↑ Wanshi Chen
9. ↑ Xiaoxia Zhang
10. ↑ Esmael H. Dinan
11. ↑ Lowell L. Wood, Jr.
12. ↑ Chen-Hua Yu
13. ↑ Roderick A. Hyde
14. ↑ Jing Sun
15. ↑ Hanbyul Seo
16. ↑ Shan Liu
17. ↑ Sarbajit K. Rakshit
18. ↑ Jun Koyama
19. ↑ Gurtej Singh Sandhu
20. ↑ Yunjung Yi
21. ↑ Shou-Shan Fan
22. ↑ Paul Lapstun
23. ↑ Alexander Reznicek
24. ↑ Suckchel Yang
25. ↑ Satoshi Seo
26. ↑ Juan Montojo
27. ↑ Ruilong Xie
28. ↑ Clarence T. Tegreene
29. ↑ Takahiro Nishi
30. ↑ Jason L. Harris
31. ↑ Kijun Kim
32. ↑ Joonkui Ahn
33. ↑ Marta Karczewicz
34. ↑ Yan Zhou
35. ↑ Tingfang Ji
36. ↑ Edward K. Y. Jung
37. ↑ Leonard Forbes
38. ↑ Seungmin Lee
39. ↑ Thomas Edison
40. ↑ Jason K. Resch
41. ↑ Rick Allen Hamilton II
42. ↑ Hao Xu
43. ↑ Ahmadreza Rofougaran
44. ↑ Justin T. Mason
45. ↑ Donald E. Weder
46. ↑ Michael J. Sullivan
47. ↑ George Albert Lyon
48. ↑ Jordin T. Kare
49. ↑ Jay S. Walker
50. ↑ Satoshi Nagata
51. ↑ Hajime Kimura
52. ↑ Kyungmin Park
53. ↑ John F. O'Connor
54. ↑ William H. Eby
55. ↑ David R. Hall
56. ↑ Melvin De Groote
57. ↑ Hua Zhou
58. ↑ Hongyuan Zhang
59. ↑ Nathan Myhrvold
60. ↑ Francis H. Richards
61. ↑ Stuart C. Salter
62. ↑ Chih-Chao Yang
63. ↑ Mark Malamud
64. ↑ Robert W. Lord
65. ↑ Hsien-Wei Chen
66. ↑ Royce A. Levien
67. ↑ Lee D. Whetsel
68. ↑ Youngdae Lee
69. ↑ Muriel Y. Ishikawa
70. ↑ Michael K. Gschwind
71. ↑ Clifford A. Pickover
72. ↑ SungDuck Chun
73. ↑ Devendra K. Sadana
74. ↑ Xue Dong
75. ↑ Salman A. Akram
76. ↑ Frederick A. Ware
77. ↑ Warren M. Farnworth
78. ↑ James A. Jorasch
79. ↑ Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur
80. ↑ Bruce B. Doris
81. ↑ Toshiyasu Sugio
82. ↑ Shougo Sato
83. ↑ Ali Khakifirooz
84. ↑ Jeyhan Karaoguz
85. ↑ Carleton Ellis
86. ↑ Chung-Shi Liu
87. ↑ Hyoungsuk Jeon
88. ↑ Jonghyun Park
89. ↑ John M. Santosuosso
90. ↑ Hideo Ando
91. ↑ Lisa Seacat DeLuca
92. ↑ George Spector
93. ↑ Gregory J. Boss
94. ↑ Woosuk Ko
95. ↑ Austin L. Gurney
96. ↑ Xiaochuan Chen
97. ↑ Tetsujiro Kondo
98. ↑ Aleksandar Damnjanovic
99. ↑ Moon-il Lee
100. ↑ Elihu Thomson
101. ↑ Eric C. Leuthardt

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