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] | 6587 | 2895 | 44.0% | 1972—2025 | 53.3 | 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] | 4116 | 3423 | 83.2% | 2006—2025 | 19.2 | 214 | 5.6 |  USA | Qualcomm
Kangguo Cheng | [4] | 2808 | 1552 | 55.3% | 2004—2025 | 20.7 | 136 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Frederick E. Shelton IV | [5] | 2590 | 1196 | 46.2% | 2005—2025 | 20.1 | 129 | 4.5 |  USA | Ethicon
Junyi Li | [6] | 2580 | 2171 | 84.1% | 2002—2025 | 22.7 | 114 | 5.2 |  USA | Qualcomm
Peter Gaal | [7] | 2441 | 1879 | 77.0% | 2002—2025 | 22.9 | 107 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Wanshi Chen | [8] | 2255 | 1735 | 76.9% | 2009—2025 | 16.2 | 139 | 5.7 |  USA | Qualcomm
Lowell L. Wood, Jr. | [9] | 1998 | 1326 | 66.4% | 1971—2025 | 53.4 | 37 | 8.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Xiaoxia Zhang | [10] | 1993 | 1687 | 84.6% | 2009—2025 | 16.5 | 121 | 5.5 |  USA | Qualcomm
Roderick A. Hyde | [11] | 1892 | 1252 | 66.2% | 2001—2023 | 22.4 | 84 | 8.7 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Chen-Hua Yu | [12] | 1866 | 974 | 52.2% | 1996—2025 | 29.2 | 64 | 4.9 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Esmael H. Dinan | [13] | 1846 | 750 | 40.6% | 2006—2025 | 19.1 | 97 | 3.6 |  USA | Ofinno
Hanbyul Seo | [14] | 1769 | 1315 | 74.3% | 2012—2025 | 13.3 | 133 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Jing Sun | [15] | 1655 | 1378 | 83.3% | 2012—2025 | 12.6 | 131 | 5.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Jun Koyama | [16] | 1505 | 618 | 41.1% | 1991—2022 | 30.8 | 49 | 3.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Shan Liu | [17] | 1464 | 929 | 63.5% | 2013—2025 | 11.9 | 123 | 3.4 |  USA | Tencent
Sarbajit K. Rakshit | [18] | 1436 | 1211 | 84.3% | 2013—2025 | 12.5 | 115 | 3.4 |  India | IBM
Gurtej Singh Sandhu | [19] | 1432 | 584 | 40.8% | 1991—2024 | 32.5 | 44 | 2.5 |  USA | Micron
Yunjung Yi | [20] | 1351 | 924 | 68.4% | 2011—2025 | 14.5 | 93 | 3.3 |  USA | LG
Shou-Shan Fan | [21] | 1312 | 1097 | 83.6% | 2006—2025 | 19.1 | 69 | 4.2 |  China | Hon Hai
Paul Lapstun | [22] | 1305 | 246 | 18.9% | 2000—2022 | 21.4 | 61 | 2.5 |  Australia | Silverbrook Research
Alexander Reznicek | [23] | 1274 | 769 | 60.4% | 2006—2025 | 19.3 | 66 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Clarence T. Tegreene | [24] | 1250 | 903 | 72.2% | 2000—2024 | 23.5 | 53 | 10.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Suckchel Yang | [25] | 1248 | 808 | 64.7% | 2013—2025 | 12.1 | 103 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Satoshi Seo | [26] | 1235 | 587 | 47.5% | 2002—2025 | 22.6 | 55 | 4.1 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
Juan Montojo | [27] | 1206 | 978 | 81.1% | 2004—2025 | 21.4 | 56 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Kijun Kim | [28] | 1172 | 815 | 69.5% | 2013—2025 | 11.6 | 101 | 4.6 |  South Korea | LG
Joonkui Ahn | [29] | 1164 | 760 | 65.3% | 2013—2025 | 12.1 | 96 | 4.7 |  South Korea | LG
Takahiro Nishi | [30] | 1145 | 377 | 32.9% | 2001—2025 | 23.9 | 48 | 6.3 |  Japan | Panasonic
Jason L. Harris | [31] | 1144 | 646 | 56.5% | 2011—2025 | 14.5 | 79 | 6.0 |  USA | Ethicon
Marta Karczewicz | [32] | 1118 | 917 | 82.0% | 2000—2025 | 24.6 | 45 | 4.0 |  USA | Qualcomm
Edward K. Y. Jung | [33] | 1111 | 794 | 71.5% | 1996—2022 | 26.1 | 43 | 8.0 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Leonard Forbes | [34] | 1109 | 411 | 37.1% | 1975—2019 | 43.3 | 26 | 2.6 |  USA | Micron
Ruilong Xie | [35] | 1106 | 839 | 75.9% | 2013—2025 | 12.5 | 88 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Thomas Edison | [36] | 1084 | NA | NA | 1869—1933 | 63.9 | 17 | 1.0 |  USA | Thomas Edison
Tingfang Ji | [37] | 1078 | 798 | 74.0% | 2006—2025 | 19 | 57 | 6.9 |  USA | Qualcomm
Rick Allen Hamilton II | [38] | 1063 | 714 | 67.2% | 1999—2024 | 25 | 43 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jason K. Resch | [39] | 1044 | 513 | 49.1% | 2009—2025 | 15.7 | 66 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Seungmin Lee | [40] | 1042 | 778 | 74.7% | 2014—2025 | 10.8 | 96 | 3.5 |  South Korea | LG
Donald E. Weder | [41] | 1000 | 395 | 39.5% | 1978—2015 | 37.1 | 27 | 1.1 |  USA | Weder Family Trust
Michael J. Sullivan | [42] | 997 | 534 | 53.6% | 1989—2024 | 34.5 | 29 | 3.8 |  USA | Acushnet Holdings
George Albert Lyon | [43] | 993 | NA | NA | 1901—1965 | 64.5 | 15 | 1.0 |  Canada | Lyon George Albert
Jordin T. Kare | [44] | 992 | 640 | 64.5% | 1992—2023 | 30.5 | 33 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Ahmadreza Rofougaran | [45] | 986 | 473 | 48.0% | 2002—2025 | 23.1 | 43 | 6.4 |  USA | Broadcom
Jay S. Walker | [46] | 980 | 422 | 43.1% | 1998—2024 | 26.3 | 37 | 5.2 |  USA | Walker Digital
Yan Zhou | [47] | 972 | 854 | 87.9% | 2012—2025 | 12.9 | 75 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm
Hao Xu | [48] | 971 | 704 | 72.5% | 2005—2025 | 20.3 | 48 | 4.7 |  China | Qualcomm
John F. O'Connor | [49] | 949 | NA | NA | 1901—1935 | 33.9 | 28 | NA |  USA | William H. Miner
William H. Eby | [50] | 928 | 924 | 99.6% | 1994—2025 | 31.1 | 30 | 1.2 |  USA | Monsanto
Melvin De Groote | [51] | 925 | NA | NA | 1924—1966 | 41.8 | 22 | NA |  USA | Petrolite
Hajime Kimura | [52] | 925 | 293 | 31.7% | 2002—2025 | 22.6 | 41 | 2.6 |  Japan | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
David R. Hall | [53] | 922 | 763 | 82.8% | 1985—2025 | 40 | 23 | 3.8 |  USA | Hall Labs
Nathan Myhrvold | [54] | 907 | 613 | 67.6% | 1994—2024 | 29.7 | 31 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hongyuan Zhang | [55] | 901 | 486 | 53.9% | 2009—2025 | 16.2 | 56 | 3.9 |  USA | Marvell
Francis H. Richards | [56] | 894 | NA | NA | 1899—1930 | 30.8 | 29 | NA |  USA | Francis H. Richards
Mark Malamud | [57] | 886 | 690 | 77.9% | 1997—2022 | 25.1 | 35 | 7.5 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Justin T. Mason | [58] | 879 | 875 | 99.5% | 2008—2025 | 16.6 | 53 | 1.0 |  USA | MS Technologies
Robert W. Lord | [59] | 868 | 682 | 78.6% | 2003—2024 | 20.4 | 43 | 7.6 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Kyungmin Park | [60] | 866 | 420 | 48.5% | 2014—2025 | 11.3 | 77 | 5.2 |  USA | Ofinno
Satoshi Nagata | [61] | 860 | 823 | 95.7% | 2011—2025 | 13.8 | 62 | 4.0 |  Japan | NTT
Chih-Chao Yang | [62] | 860 | 543 | 63.1% | 2003—2025 | 21.6 | 40 | 3.4 |  USA | IBM
Stuart C. Salter | [63] | 858 | 805 | 93.8% | 2009—2025 | 15.6 | 55 | 4.8 |  USA | Ford
Royce A. Levien | [64] | 855 | 666 | 77.9% | 1997—2020 | 23.4 | 37 | 6.8 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Lee D. Whetsel | [65] | 846 | 128 | 15.1% | 1991—2017 | 26.4 | 32 | 1.1 |  USA | Texas Instruments
Muriel Y. Ishikawa | [66] | 840 | 560 | 66.7% | 2002—2023 | 21.2 | 40 | 11.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Hsien-Wei Chen | [67] | 838 | 389 | 46.4% | 2005—2025 | 20.4 | 41 | 3.5 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Michael K. Gschwind | [68] | 836 | 442 | 52.9% | 2001—2021 | 20.6 | 41 | 2.6 |  USA | IBM
Clifford A. Pickover | [69] | 836 | 548 | 65.6% | 1992—2024 | 32.2 | 26 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Youngdae Lee | [70] | 827 | 650 | 78.6% | 2014—2025 | 11.3 | 73 | 3.1 |  South Korea | LG
Devendra K. Sadana | [71] | 825 | 468 | 56.7% | 1983—2025 | 42.4 | 19 | 4.3 |  USA | IBM
Hua Zhou | [72] | 818 | 435 | 53.2% | 2012—2025 | 13.4 | 61 | 5.5 |  USA | Ofinno
SungDuck Chun | [73] | 817 | 505 | 61.8% | 2007—2025 | 17.6 | 46 | 3.8 |  South Korea | LG
Salman Akram | [74] | 786 | 291 | 37.0% | 1995—2024 | 29.4 | 27 | 2.9 |  USA | Micron
Xue Dong | [75] | 784 | 758 | 96.7% | 2010—2025 | 14.5 | 54 | 7.4 |  China | BOE
Warren M. Farnworth | [76] | 774 | 289 | 37.3% | 1990—2014 | 24.4 | 32 | 2.8 |  USA | Micron
James A. Jorasch | [77] | 773 | 309 | 40.0% | 1994—2023 | 29 | 27 | 3.9 |  USA | Walker Digital
Frederick A. Ware | [78] | 767 | 229 | 29.9% | 1981—2025 | 43.4 | 18 | 2.8 |  USA | Rambus
Bruce B. Doris | [79] | 766 | 435 | 56.8% | 1995—2025 | 30.3 | 25 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jeyhan Karaoguz | [80] | 757 | 371 | 49.0% | 1996—2020 | 23.8 | 32 | 4.6 |  USA | Broadcom
Ali Khakifirooz | [81] | 757 | 413 | 54.6% | 2011—2025 | 13.9 | 54 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Shougo Sato | [82] | 756 | 290 | 38.4% | 1992—2025 | 32.8 | 23 | 1.8 |  Japan | Brother
Carleton Ellis | [83] | 753 | NA | NA | 1902—1946 | 43.1 | 17 | NA |  USA | Ellis Foster Co
Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur | [84] | 741 | 600 | 81.0% | 2006—2025 | 19.2 | 39 | 2.6 |  France | Cisco Systems
John M. Santosuosso | [85] | 738 | 466 | 63.1% | 2001—2022 | 20.7 | 36 | 3.9 |  USA | IBM
Hideo Ando | [86] | 733 | 123 | 16.8% | 1983—2020 | 36.7 | 20 | 3.1 |  Japan | Toshiba
Chung-Shi Liu | [87] | 732 | 389 | 53.1% | 2000—2025 | 25.5 | 29 | 6.1 |  Taiwan | TSMC
Toshiyasu Sugio | [88] | 725 | 263 | 36.3% | 2009—2025 | 15.9 | 46 | 4.9 |  Japan | Panasonic
George Spector | [89] | 723 | 723 | 100% | 1974—1998 | 24.6 | 29 | 2.1 |  USA | George Spector
Lisa Seacat DeLuca | [90] | 720 | 524 | 72.8% | 2009—2025 | 16.4 | 44 | 2.7 |  USA | IBM
Austin L. Gurney | [91] | 718 | 182 | 25.3% | 1999—2021 | 21.6 | 33 | 2.9 |  USA | Genentech
Gregory J. Boss | [92] | 716 | 493 | 68.9% | 2008—2025 | 17.3 | 41 | 4.2 |  USA | IBM
Jonghyun Park | [93] | 715 | 514 | 71.9% | 2013—2025 | 12.5 | 57 | 3.8 |  USA | LG
Woosuk Ko | [94] | 704 | 301 | 42.8% | 2015—2025 | 10.3 | 68 | 3.4 |  South Korea | LG
Tetsujiro Kondo | [95] | 700 | 528 | 75.4% | 1987—2021 | 34 | 21 | 3.8 |  Japan | Sony
Elihu Thomson | [96] | 696 | NA | NA | 1899—1935 | 35.9 | 19 | NA |  USA | GE
Xiaochuan Chen | [97] | 686 | 664 | 96.8% | 2014—2025 | 10.9 | 63 | 7.0 |  China | BOE
Eric C. Leuthardt | [98] | 685 | 462 | 67.4% | 2006—2025 | 18.8 | 36 | 9.1 |  USA | Intellectual Ventures
Irwin Gerszberg | [99] | 682 | 312 | 45.7% | 1994—2023 | 29.2 | 23 | 6.8 |  USA | AT&T
Aleksandar Damnjanovic | [100] | 677 | 494 | 73.0% | 2003—2025 | 22 | 31 | 4.4 |  USA | Qualcomm

This table is usually updated every Tuesday, and is current as of August 5, 2025[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. ^ Xiaoxia Zhang
11. ^ Roderick A. Hyde
12. ^ Chen-Hua Yu
13. ^ Esmael H. Dinan
14. ^ Hanbyul Seo
15. ^ Jing Sun
16. ^ Jun Koyama
17. ^ Shan Liu
18. ^ Sarbajit K. Rakshit
19. ^ Gurtej Singh Sandhu
20. ^ Yunjung Yi
21. ^ Shou-Shan Fan
22. ^ Paul Lapstun
23. ^ Alexander Reznicek
24. ^ Clarence T. Tegreene
25. ^ Suckchel Yang
26. ^ Satoshi Seo
27. ^ Juan Montojo
28. ^ Kijun Kim
29. ^ Joonkui Ahn
30. ^ Takahiro Nishi
31. ^ Jason L. Harris
32. ^ Marta Karczewicz
33. ^ Edward K. Y. Jung
34. ^ Leonard Forbes
35. ^ Ruilong Xie
36. ^ Thomas Edison
37. ^ Tingfang Ji
38. ^ Rick Allen Hamilton II
39. ^ Jason K. Resch
40. ^ Seungmin Lee
41. ^ Donald E. Weder
42. ^ Michael J. Sullivan
43. ^ George Albert Lyon
44. ^ Jordin T. Kare
45. ^ Ahmadreza Rofougaran
46. ^ Jay S. Walker
47. ^ Yan Zhou
48. ^ Hao Xu
49. ^ John F. O'Connor
50. ^ William H. Eby
51. ^ Melvin De Groote
52. ^ Hajime Kimura
53. ^ David R. Hall
54. ^ Nathan Myhrvold
55. ^ Hongyuan Zhang
56. ^ Francis H. Richards
57. ^ Mark Malamud
58. ^ Justin T. Mason
59. ^ Robert W. Lord
60. ^ Kyungmin Park
61. ^ Satoshi Nagata
62. ^ Chih-Chao Yang
63. ^ Stuart C. Salter
64. ^ Royce A. Levien
65. ^ Lee D. Whetsel
66. ^ Muriel Y. Ishikawa
67. ^ Hsien-Wei Chen
68. ^ Michael K. Gschwind
69. ^ Clifford A. Pickover
70. ^ Youngdae Lee
71. ^ Devendra K. Sadana
72. ^ Hua Zhou
73. ^ SungDuck Chun
74. ^ Salman Akram
75. ^ Xue Dong
76. ^ Warren M. Farnworth
77. ^ James A. Jorasch
78. ^ Frederick A. Ware
79. ^ Bruce B. Doris
80. ^ Jeyhan Karaoguz
81. ^ Ali Khakifirooz
82. ^ Shougo Sato
83. ^ Carleton Ellis
84. ^ Jean-Philippe M. Vasseur
85. ^ John M. Santosuosso
86. ^ Hideo Ando
87. ^ Chung-Shi Liu
88. ^ Toshiyasu Sugio
89. ^ George Spector
90. ^ Lisa Seacat DeLuca
91. ^ Austin L. Gurney
92. ^ Gregory J. Boss
93. ^ Jonghyun Park
94. ^ Woosuk Ko
95. ^ Tetsujiro Kondo
96. ^ Elihu Thomson
97. ^ Xiaochuan Chen
98. ^ Eric C. Leuthardt
99. ^ Irwin Gerszberg
100. ^ Aleksandar Damnjanovic

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