List of prolific inventors
was widely known as the America's most prolific inventor, even after his death in 1931. He held a total of 1,093 U.S. patents. In 2003, his patent count was exceeded by Japanese inventor Shunpei Yamazaki. On February 26, 2008, Yamazaki's patent count was exceeded by Australian inventor Kia Silverbrook. In 2017, Silverbrook's patent count was exceeded by Yamazaki.
Worldwide utility patents
Inventors with 200 or more 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.This table is usually updated every Tuesday evening in US Eastern time, and is current as of 2020.
The columns are defined as follows:
- Inventor: The name of the inventor.
- Patents: The number of utility patents that have been issued. Only utility patents 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 as there is no guarantee that a patent application actually describes a novel invention until the patent is granted.
- Country: The country of birth or upbringing of the inventor, where known. If unknown, this is the country of residence identified in the inventor's patent filings.
- Patent Years: The first and last year in which an inventor received a patent issuance.
- Years: The number of years between and including the first and last year in which an inventor received a patent issuance.
- Patents / Year: The average number of patents received per year .
- 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.
Threshold for inclusion
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.The common symbol for inventiveness, the light bulb, is an example. The first incandescent light bulb was invented by British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1802. Many subsequent inventors improved Davy's invention prior to the successful commercialization of electric lighting by Thomas Edison in 1880, 78 years later. Electric lighting continued to be developed. Edison's carbon filament light bulb was made obsolete by the tungsten filament light bulb, invented in 1904 by Sándor Just and Franjo Hanaman. It is this that forms the popular conception of a light bulb, though there are other major forms of lighting. The principle of fluorescent lights was known since 1845, and various inventors, including Edison and Nikola Tesla worked on them without commercial success. Various improvements were made by many other inventors, until General Electric introduced "fluorescent lumiline lamps" commercially in 1938, first available to the public at the 1939 World's Fair. LED lamps also have a long history, with the first light-emitting diode invented in 1927 by Oleg Losev. LEDs were initially of low brightness, and have been used as indicator lamps and seven-segment displays since 1968. It wasn't until the development of high efficiency blue LEDs by Shuji Nakamura in the 1980s that white LEDs for lighting applications became practical. Although higher cost than incandescent light bulbs, LEDs have higher efficiency and longer life and may finally displace light bulbs in general lighting applications. In each case, more than 50 years passed between the initial invention and commercial success in general lighting applications.
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. 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.''Popular'' ''Science'' (1936)
In January 1936, Popular Science published a list of the "most prolific living inventors to be found in America today".| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | John F. O'Connor | 949 |
| 2 | Elihu Thomson | 696 |
| 3 | Carleton Ellis | 648 |
| 4 | Henry A. Wise Wood | 434 |
| 5 | John Hays Hammond Jr. | 360 |
| 6 | Clyde C. Farmer | 344 |
| 7 | Ethan I. Dodds | 321 |
| 8 | Edward Weston | 309 |
Thomas Edison was not included in the list, as he died in 1931, five years earlier.
''Time'' ''Magazine'' (2000)
On December 4, 2000, Time Magazine published a list of the "top five inventors".| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Thomas Edison | 1,093 |
| 2 | Melvin De Groote | 925 |
| 3 | Francis H. Richards | 894 |
| 4 | Elihu Thomson | 696 |
| 5 | Jerome Lemelson | 554 |
This list only included U.S. inventors, so omitted Canadian inventor George Albert Lyon, with 993 U.S. patents at the time of publication, Japanese inventor Shunpei Yamazaki, with 745 U.S. patents, and Béla Barényi, with 595 German patents. Also omitted were John F. O'Connor with 949 U.S. patents, and Carleton Ellis, with 753 U.S. patents at the time of publication.
''USA'' ''Today'' (2005)
On December 13, 2005, USA Today published a list of "the top 10 living U.S. patent holders":| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 1,432 |
| 2 | Donald Weder | 1,322 |
| 3 | Kia Silverbrook | 810 |
| 4 | George Spector | 723 |
| 5 | Gurtej Sandhu | 576 |
| 6 | Warren Farnworth | 547 |
| 7 | Salman Akram | 527 |
| 8 | Mark Gardner | 512 |
| 9 | Heinz Focke | 508 |
| 10 | Joseph Straeter | 477 |
This research was performed by ipIQ of Chicago and 1790 Analytics of New Jersey. This list only considered living inventors, and thus did not include prolific inventors such as Thomas Edison, Melvin De Groote, and Elihu Thomson. This list included design patents, which are not patents for inventions.
''Condé Nast Portfolio'' (2007)
On October 15, 2007, Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine published a list of "the world's most prolific inventors alive":| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 1,811 |
| 2 | Kia Silverbrook | 1,646 |
| 3 | Donald Weder | 1,350 |
| 4 | George Spector | 722 |
| 5 | Gurtej Sandhu | 674 |
| 6 | Leonard Forbes | 671 |
| 7 | Warren Farnworth | 635 |
| 8 | Salman Akram | 612 |
| 9 | Mark Gardner | 515 |
| 10 | Joseph Straeter | 485 |
This research was performed by The Patent Board, a Chicago patent research and advisory firm.
As with the USA Today list, the Portfolio list only considered living inventors, and thus did not include such prolific inventors as Thomas Edison. This list also included design patents, which are not patents for inventions.
''Business'' ''Insider'' (2011)
On May 6, 2011, Business Insider published an article titled: "The Ten Greatest Inventors In The Modern Era" containing the following list:| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 3,847 |
| 2 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 2,061 |
| 3 | Thomas Edison | 1,084 |
| 4 | George Albert Lyon | 993 |
| 5 | Paul Lapstun | 969 |
| 6 | Donald Weder | 951 |
| 7 | John F. O'Connor | 949 |
| 8 | Leonard Forbes | 948 |
| 9 | Melvin De Groote | 925 |
| 10 | Francis H. Richards | 894 |
This list included living and dead inventors, and only included granted utility patents.
Strutpatent.com (2012)
Strutpatent.com publishes a list of the "Top 10 Inventors" listing inventors ranked by US patents issued since 1990:| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 4,279 |
| 2 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 1,664 |
| 3 | Donald Weder | 1,310 |
| 4 | Paul Lapstun | 1,098 |
| 5 | Leonard Forbes | 959 |
| 6 | Gurtej Sandhu | 728 |
| 7 | Warren Farnworth | 685 |
| 8 | Salman Akram | 653 |
| 9 | Jay Walker | 644 |
| 10 | Chang-Hwan Hwang | 634 |
This list included only patents granted since 1990, and includes design patents as well as utility patents.
Annual lists (2007–2012)
Strutpatent.com publishes weekly, monthly, and annual lists of the top ten categories, inventors and assignees of US patents since 2007. These lists include all patent types, not just patents for inventions.The top ten inventors of US patents for 2007:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 502 |
| 2 | Audrey Goddard | 232 |
| 3 | William I. Wood | 232 |
| 4 | Austin L. Gurney | 225 |
| 5 | Chang-Hwan Hwang | 203 |
| 6 | Paul J. Godowski | 193 |
| 7 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 139 |
| 8 | Paul Lapstun | 129 |
| 9 | Leonard Forbes | 120 |
| 10 | Victoria Smith | 112 |
The top ten inventors of US patents for 2008:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 576 |
| 2 | Chang-Hwan Hwang | 198 |
| 3 | Audrey Goddard | 168 |
| 4 | Austin L. Gurney | 167 |
| 5 | William I. Wood | 166 |
| 6 | Paul J. Godowski | 153 |
| 7 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 143 |
| 8 | Paul Lapstun | 137 |
| 9 | Chang-Soo Lee | 129 |
| 10 | Victoria Smith | 122 |
The top ten inventors of US patents for 2009:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 444 |
| 2 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 137 |
| 3 | Paul Lapstun | 113 |
| 4 | Bartley K. Andre | 92 |
| 5 | Daniele De Iuliis | 92 |
| 6 | Jonathan Ive | 92 |
| 7 | Matthew Rohrbach | 92 |
| 8 | Richard P. Howarth | 91 |
| 9 | Duncan Robert Kerr | 91 |
| 10 | Leonard Forbes | 91 |
The top ten inventors of US patents for 2010:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 709 |
| 2 | Paul Lapstun | 191 |
| 3 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 162 |
| 4 | Simon Walmsley | 115 |
| 5 | Bartley K. Andre | 114 |
| 6 | Matthew Rohrbach | 109 |
| 7 | Richard P. Howarth | 108 |
| 8 | Jonathan Ive | 108 |
| 9 | Duncan Robert Kerr | 108 |
| 10 | Daniel J. Coster | 106 |
The top ten inventors of US patents for 2011:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 754 |
| 2 | Paul Lapstun | 268 |
| 3 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 163 |
| 4 | Hideo Ando | 162 |
| 5 | You Yoshioka | 153 |
| 6 | Scott H. Wittkopp | 126 |
| 7 | James M. Hart | 125 |
| 8 | Edward Jung | 112 |
| 9 | Simon Walmsley | 112 |
| 10 | Jay S. Walker | 99 |
The top ten inventors of US patents for 2012:
| Rank | Inventor | U.S. Patents |
| 1 | Kia Silverbrook | 220 |
| 2 | Edward Jung | 180 |
| 3 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 172 |
| 4 | Lowell Wood | 169 |
| 5 | Roderick Hyde | 140 |
| 6 | Bin Li | 124 |
| 7 | Royce Levien | 122 |
| 8 | Mark Malamud | 119 |
| 9 | Shunpei Yamazaki | 118 |
| 10 | John Rinaldo | 117 |
This table omitted Rick Allen Hamilton II. The USPTO database shows Hamilton was an inventor or co-inventor of 128 US patents granted in 2012, which would place Hamilton at 6th rank for 2012.
Differences between lists
Differences in patent numbers between the various lists are due to several reasons:- The lists were created on different dates. As many of the inventors in the lists are still active, the number of patents they hold are increasing.
- While the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is the primary source for U.S. patent information, only patents issued since 1976 can be electronically searched by the inventor's name at the USPTO website. For some of the listed inventors, such as Thomas Edison, all of their patents predate 1976, so other sources must be used.
- Often entities list the worldwide total number of patents that they hold. This is not the same as the number of inventions, as a patent in one country may be for the same invention as a patent in another country. The set of patents covering a single invention in different countries is a Patent family.
- The Time, USA Today and Portfolio lists show the total number of U.S. patents, including patents for designs as well as patents for inventions.
- The annual lists from strutpatent.com list only those patents issued in the particular year to the inventor, not all of the inventor's patents.