List of prolific inventors

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

[edit]

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

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Shunpei Yamazaki | [1] | 6352 | 2812 | 44.3% | 1972—2024 | 52.3 | 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] | 3289 | 2766 | 84.1% | 2006—2024 | 18.1 | 182 | 5.6 |  USA | Qualcomm
Kangguo Cheng | [4] | 2738 | 1498 | 54.7% | 2004—2024 | 19.7 | 139 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Frederick E. Shelton IV | [5] | 2344 | 1118 | 47.7% | 2005—2024 | 19 | 123 | 4.5 |  USA | Ethicon
Junyi Li | [6] | 2135 | 1810 | 84.8% | 2002—2024 | 21.7 | 98 | 5.2 |  USA | Qualcomm
Peter Gaal | [7] | 2118 | 1634 | 77.1% | 2002—2024 | 21.9 | 97 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Wanshi Chen | [8] | 2008 | 1555 | 77.4% | 2009—2024 | 15.2 | 132 | 5.7 |  USA | Qualcomm
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. | [9] | 1994 | 1325 | 66.4% | 1971—2024 | 52.5 | 38 | 8.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Roderick A. Hyde | [10] | 1889 | 1252 | 66.3% | 2001—2024 | 23.1 | 82 | 8.7 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Chen-Hua Yu | [11] | 1716 | 933 | 54.4% | 1996—2024 | 28.1 | 61 | 4.9 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Hanbyul Seo | [12] | 1616 | 1180 | 73.0% | 2012—2024 | 12.2 | 132 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Xiaoxia Zhang | [13] | 1562 | 1363 | 87.3% | 2009—2024 | 15.5 | 101 | 5.5 |  USA | Qualcomm
Esmael H. Dinan | [14] | 1490 | 637 | 42.8% | 2006—2024 | 18 | 83 | 3.6 |  USA | Ofinno
Jun Koyama | [15] | 1487 | 620 | 41.7% | 1991—2024 | 33 | 45 | 3.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Gurtej Singh Sandhu | [16] | 1424 | 584 | 41.0% | 1991—2024 | 32.9 | 43 | 2.5 |  USA | Micron
Jing Sun | [17] | 1306 | 1115 | 85.4% | 2012—2024 | 11.5 | 114 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Paul Lapstun | [18] | 1304 | 246 | 18.9% | 2000—2023 | 23 | 57 | 2.5 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Shou-Shan Fan | [19] | 1302 | 1088 | 83.6% | 2006—2024 | 18.1 | 72 | 4.2 |  China | Hon Hai
Sarbajit K. Rakshit | [20] | 1269 | 1054 | 83.1% | 2013—2024 | 11.5 | 110 | 3.4 |  India | IBM
Clarence T. Tegreene | [21] | 1246 | 903 | 72.5% | 2000—2024 | 23.5 | 53 | 10.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Alexander Reznicek | [22] | 1236 | 737 | 59.6% | 2006—2024 | 18.2 | 68 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Satoshi Seo | [23] | 1161 | 550 | 47.4% | 2002—2024 | 21.5 | 54 | 4.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Kijun Kim | [24] | 1136 | 793 | 69.8% | 2013—2024 | 10.6 | 107 | 4.6 |  South Korea | LG
Suckchel Yang | [25] | 1128 | 730 | 64.7% | 2013—2024 | 11 | 103 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Leonard Forbes | [26] | 1109 | 411 | 37.1% | 1975—2019 | 43.3 | 26 | 2.6 |  USA | Micron
Edward K. Y. Jung | [27] | 1109 | 794 | 71.6% | 1996—2023 | 27.4 | 40 | 8.0 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Shan Liu | [28] | 1103 | 737 | 66.8% | 2013—2024 | 10.8 | 102 | 3.4 |  USA | Tencent
Joonkui Ahn | [29] | 1102 | 720 | 65.3% | 2013—2024 | 11 | 100 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Thomas Edison | [30] | 1084 | NA | NA | 1869—1933 | 63.9 | 17 | 1.0 |  USA | Thomas Edison
Rick Allen Hamilton II | [31] | 1062 | 714 | 67.2% | 1999—2024 | 25 | 42 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Juan Montojo | [32] | 1053 | 862 | 81.9% | 2004—2024 | 20.4 | 52 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Marta Karczewicz | [33] | 1047 | 865 | 82.6% | 2000—2024 | 23.5 | 45 | 4.0 |  USA | Qualcomm
Ruilong Xie | [34] | 1012 | 752 | 74.3% | 2013—2024 | 11.4 | 89 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jason L. Harris | [35] | 1004 | 602 | 60.0% | 2011—2024 | 13.5 | 74 | 6.0 |  USA | Ethicon
Donald E. Weder | [36] | 1000 | 395 | 39.5% | 1978—2015 | 37.1 | 27 | 1.1 |  USA | Weder Family Trust
Jason K. Resch | [37] | 998 | 501 | 50.2% | 2009—2024 | 14.9 | 67 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
George Albert Lyon | [38] | 993 | NA | NA | 1901—1965 | 64.5 | 15 | 1.0 |  Canada | Lyon George Albert
Michael J. Sullivan | [39] | 993 | 534 | 53.8% | 1989—2024 | 34.9 | 28 | 3.8 |  USA | Acushnet Holdings
Jordin T. Kare | [40] | 988 | 640 | 64.8% | 1992—2024 | 31.4 | 31 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Jay S. Walker | [41] | 978 | 421 | 43.0% | 1998—2024 | 25.8 | 38 | 5.2 |  USA | Walker Digital
Tingfang Ji | [42] | 974 | 724 | 74.3% | 2006—2024 | 17.9 | 54 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Yunjung Yi | [43] | 970 | 687 | 70.8% | 2015—2024 | 8.6 | 113 | 3.3 |  South Korea | LG
Takahiro Nishi | [44] | 959 | 344 | 35.9% | 2001—2024 | 22.9 | 42 | 6.3 |  Japan | Panasonic
John F. O'Connor | [45] | 949 | NA | NA | 1901—1935 | 33.9 | 28 | NA |  USA | William H. Miner
Ahmadreza Rofougaran | [46] | 946 | 458 | 48.4% | 2002—2024 | 21.8 | 43 | 6.4 |  USA | Broadcom
Melvin De Groote | [47] | 925 | NA | NA | 1924—1966 | 41.8 | 22 | NA |  USA | Petrolite
David R. Hall | [48] | 909 | 754 | 82.9% | 1985—2024 | 39 | 23 | 3.8 |  USA | Hall Labs
Nathan Myhrvold | [49] | 905 | 613 | 67.7% | 1994—2024 | 29.7 | 30 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Seungmin Lee | [50] | 902 | 661 | 73.3% | 2014—2024 | 9.7 | 93 | 3.5 |  South Korea | LG
William H. Eby | [51] | 899 | 895 | 99.6% | 1994—2024 | 30.2 | 30 | 1.2 |  USA | Monsanto
Francis H. Richards | [52] | 894 | NA | NA | 1899—1930 | 30.8 | 29 | NA |  USA | Francis H. Richards
Hao Xu | [53] | 892 | 637 | 71.4% | 2005—2024 | 19.2 | 46 | 4.7 |  China | Qualcomm
Mark Malamud | [54] | 885 | 690 | 78.0% | 1997—2023 | 25.9 | 34 | 7.5 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hajime Kimura | [55] | 878 | 280 | 31.9% | 2002—2024 | 21.6 | 41 | 2.6 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Robert W. Lord | [56] | 866 | 682 | 78.8% | 2003—2024 | 20.4 | 42 | 7.6 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hongyuan Zhang | [57] | 855 | 472 | 55.2% | 2009—2024 | 15.2 | 56 | 3.9 |  USA | Marvell
Royce A. Levien | [58] | 854 | 666 | 78.0% | 1997—2023 | 25.9 | 33 | 6.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Muriel Y. Ishikawa | [59] | 838 | 560 | 66.8% | 2002—2023 | 21.2 | 40 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Michael K. Gschwind | [60] | 836 | 442 | 52.9% | 2001—2024 | 23.2 | 36 | 2.6 |  USA | IBM
Clifford A. Pickover | [61] | 834 | 549 | 65.8% | 1992—2024 | 32.3 | 26 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Chih-Chao Yang | [62] | 831 | 516 | 62.1% | 2003—2024 | 20.5 | 41 | 3.4 |  USA | IBM
Lee D. Whetsel | [63] | 831 | 128 | 15.4% | 1991—2024 | 33.2 | 25 | 1.1 |  USA | Texas Instruments
Devendra K. Sadana | [64] | 808 | 457 | 56.6% | 1983—2024 | 41.4 | 20 | 4.3 |  USA | IBM
SungDuck Chun | [65] | 789 | 481 | 61.0% | 2007—2024 | 16.5 | 48 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Salman Akram | [66] | 782 | 290 | 37.1% | 1995—2024 | 28.6 | 27 | 2.9 |  USA | Micron
Warren M. Farnworth | [67] | 774 | 289 | 37.3% | 1990—2020 | 24.4 | 32 | 2.8 |  USA | Micron
James A. Jorasch | [68] | 769 | 309 | 40.2% | 1994—2024 | 29.7 | 26 | 3.9 |  USA | Walker Digital
Bruce B. Doris | [69] | 763 | 433 | 56.7% | 1995—2023 | 28.7 | 27 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Stuart C. Salter | [70] | 762 | 715 | 93.8% | 2009—2024 | 14.5 | 53 | 4.8 |  USA | Ford
Hsien-Wei Chen | [71] | 761 | 379 | 49.8% | 2005—2024 | 19.3 | 39 | 3.5 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Youngdae Lee | [72] | 761 | 600 | 78.8% | 2014—2024 | 10.3 | 74 | 3.1 |  South Korea | LG
Jeyhan Karaoguz | [73] | 757 | 371 | 49.0% | 1996—2024 | 27.5 | 28 | 4.6 |  USA | Broadcom
Justin T. Mason | [74] | 755 | 751 | 99.5% | 2008—2024 | 15.7 | 48 | 1.0 |  USA | MS Technologies
Carleton Ellis | [75] | 753 | NA | NA | 1902—1946 | 43.1 | 17 | NA |  USA | Ellis Foster Co
Ali Khakifirooz | [76] | 750 | 406 | 54.1% | 2011—2024 | 12.8 | 59 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Xue Dong | [77] | 741 | 724 | 97.7% | 2010—2024 | 13.5 | 55 | 7.4 |  China | BOE
John M. Santosuosso | [78] | 738 | 466 | 63.1% | 2001—2024 | 22.5 | 33 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Hideo Ando | [79] | 733 | 123 | 16.8% | 1983—2020 | 36.7 | 20 | 3.1 |  Japan | Toshiba
Yan Zhou | [80] | 725 | 648 | 89.4% | 2012—2024 | 11.9 | 61 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm
George Spector | [81] | 723 | 723 | 100% | 1974—1998 | 24.6 | 29 | 2.1 |  USA | George Spector
Austin L. Gurney | [82] | 718 | 182 | 25.3% | 1999—2021 | 21.6 | 33 | 2.9 |  USA | Genentech
Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur | [83] | 716 | 581 | 81.1% | 2006—2024 | 18.2 | 39 | 2.6 |  France | Cisco Systems
Frederick A. Ware | [84] | 714 | 225 | 31.5% | 1981—2024 | 42.6 | 17 | 2.8 |  USA | Rambus
Satoshi Nagata | [85] | 713 | 677 | 95.0% | 2011—2024 | 12.8 | 56 | 4.0 |  Japan | NTT
Shougo Sato | [86] | 712 | 279 | 39.2% | 1992—2024 | 31.7 | 22 | 1.8 |  Japan | Brother
Lisa Seacat DeLuca | [87] | 708 | 513 | 72.5% | 2009—2024 | 15.4 | 46 | 2.7 |  USA | IBM
Gregory J. Boss | [88] | 707 | 484 | 68.5% | 2008—2024 | 16.3 | 43 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Tetsujiro Kondo | [89] | 700 | 528 | 75.4% | 1987—2021 | 34 | 21 | 3.8 |  Japan | Sony
Elihu Thomson | [90] | 696 | NA | NA | 1899—1935 | 35.9 | 19 | NA |  USA | GE
Chung-Shi Liu | [91] | 688 | 378 | 54.9% | 2000—2024 | 24.5 | 28 | 6.1 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Kyungmin Park | [92] | 686 | 374 | 54.5% | 2014—2024 | 10.2 | 67 | 5.2 |  USA | Ofinno
Irwin Gerszberg | [93] | 681 | 312 | 45.8% | 1994—2024 | 30.2 | 23 | 6.8 |  USA | AT&T
Eric C. Leuthardt | [94] | 677 | 457 | 67.5% | 2006—2024 | 17.7 | 38 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Paul S. Henry | [95] | 656 | 301 | 45.9% | 1978—2023 | 44.9 | 15 | 6.3 |  USA | AT&T
Woosuk Ko | [96] | 654 | 254 | 38.8% | 2015—2024 | 9.2 | 71 | 3.4 |  South Korea | LG
William I. Wood | [97] | 653 | 259 | 39.7% | 1981—2013 | 32.2 | 20 | 5.2 |  USA | Genentech
Xiaochuan Chen | [98] | 652 | 637 | 97.7% | 2014—2024 | 10 | 65 | 7.0 |  China | BOE
Simon R. Walmsley | [99] | 651 | 171 | 26.3% | 1995—2012 | 17.2 | 38 | 3.2 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Jae Hoon Chung | [100] | 650 | 381 | 58.6% | 2010—2023 | 13 | 50 | 4.5 |  South Korea | LG

This table is usually updated every Tuesday, and is current as of July 16, 2024[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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

* Timeline of historic inventions
* List of inventors

## References

[edit]

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

[edit]

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. ^ Esmael H. Dinan
15. ^ Jun Koyama
16. ^ Gurtej Singh Sandhu
17. ^ Jing Sun
18. ^ Paul Lapstun
19. ^ Shou-Shan Fan
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. ^ Jason L. Harris
36. ^ Donald E. Weder
37. ^ Jason K. Resch
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. ^ Hongyuan Zhang
58. ^ Royce A. Levien
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. ^ Justin T. Mason
75. ^ Carleton Ellis
76. ^ Ali Khakifirooz
77. ^ Xue Dong
78. ^ John M. Santosuosso
79. ^ Hideo Ando
80. ^ Yan Zhou
81. ^ George Spector
82. ^ Austin L. Gurney
83. ^ Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur
84. ^ Frederick A. Ware
85. ^ Satoshi Nagata
86. ^ Shougo Sato
87. ^ Lisa Seacat DeLuca
88. ^ Gregory J. Boss
89. ^ Tetsujiro Kondo
90. ^ Elihu Thomson
91. ^ Chung-Shi Liu
92. ^ Kyungmin Park
93. ^ Irwin Gerszberg
94. ^ Eric C. Leuthardt
95. ^ Paul S. Henry
96. ^ Woosuk Ko
97. ^ William I. Wood
98. ^ Xiaochuan Chen
99. ^ Simon R. Walmsley
100. ^ Jae Hoon Chung

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