2014 Washington City and State Patent Issuance Statistics
Posted Saturday, January 10, 2015.
2014 was a record year for issuance of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In calendar year 2014, the USPTO issued a total of 324,372 utility and design patents.
The top ten cites in Washington in terms of number of patents issued in 2014 naming at least one inventor from that city were as follows:
Seattle 3752
Redmond 2295
Bellevue 2085
Kirkland 1165
Sammamish 1029
Issaquah 600
Woodinville 510
Bothell 490
Mercer Island 359
Renton 313
The percentage of all patents issued in 2014 which name at least one Bellevue resident as an inventor was 0.64%. Put another way, one out of every 156 patents issued includes a Bellevue inventor. Redmond and Seattle also fare well in this metric, as one out of every 141 patents issued in 2014 includes a Redmond inventor, and one out of every 86 patents issued in 2014 includes a Seattle inventor.
Washington as a whole is well-represented in the total number of patents issued. 8,783 of the patents issued in 2014 named at least one inventor residing in Washington. Expressed differently, 2.7% of all patents (one in every 37) named at least one Washington inventor. When compared with Washington’s share of the overall U.S. population (2.2%), we see that the citizens of Washington produce more patentable inventions than those in other states.
For comparison, California represents 12% of the total US population and nearly 16% of patents named at least one California inventor. California is the only state among the top five most populous states which exceeded Washington’s patentable invention production per capita.
Comparing the individual Washington city totals with their share of the overall U.S. population, the production of patentable inventions per capita becomes even more apparent. For example, Bellevue’s share of the U.S. population is 0.04%, yet a Bellevue inventor is named on 0.64% of the patents.
The Washington city with the best ratio of number of patents issued in 2014 including an inventor from that city to percent of overall U.S. population is Woodinville. Woodinville accounts for 0.0035% of the U.S. population, but 0.16% of the patents issued in 2014 included a Woodinville resident. The top ten Washington cities in this particular metric are:
- Woodinville
- Redmond
- Medina
- Sammamish
- Issaquah
- Bellevue
- Mercer Island
- Kirkland
- Clyde Hill
- Bothell
Other area cities that had a higher share of patents than their share of the U.S. population included Federal Way, Kent, Everett, Shoreline, Renton, Seattle, Kenmore, Beaux Arts, Hunts Point, Newcastle, and Yarrow Point.
The property rights in many of the patents issued to Washington inventors were transferred to area companies. Microsoft, for example, owned the rights to 2693 of the patents issued to Washington inventors. Amazon received 600, while Boeing received 543. Bellevue’s Invention Science Fund received 222. The University of Washington received 47 patents that were issued naming a Washington inventor, while T-Mobile received 50 and Paccar received 10.
All population data utilized in the above statistics were taken from either the U.S. Census Bureau state population estimates as of 7/1/14 or the Washington Office of Financial Management city population estimates as of 4/1/14. The issued patent totals above include utility and design patents, but do not include plant patents, reissue patents, statutory invention registrations, or defensive publications.