The top patent earner in Florida last year

Tech and engineering firms were the most inventive patent winners across the U.S. last year—a year marked by growing tension with foreign nations racing to bring world-changing tech like artificial intelligence and space satellites to market.

Nearly 160,000 patents were assigned across the U.S. in 2022, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. When a patent is awarded through the USPTO, the individual or company that it's given to has the license to a temporary monopoly on business for that specific product or service. Companies have used patent law for decades to defend their intellectual property—including designs and devices against competitors that might attempt to profit off of stolen ideas.

ClickUp used data from the Patent and Trademark Office to find the top patent earner in Florida based on the number of patents assigned in USPTO's fiscal year 2022, which ran from Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022. This analysis was part of a broader national report on the top patent earner in every state. The data looks at the assignees for both regular utility and design patents and was limited to assignees that received at least 10 patents within the year.

Magic Leap Inc. was the top patent-earner in Florida last year. It was issued 275 patents from the USPTO within the state, comprising 21.5% of all patents considered for the statewide analysis. Founded in 2010, Magic Leap is a company developing augmented reality technology, which overlays digital content onto the real world. In 2022 it earned patents for mixed reality systems that can display 3D content in real-time.

Nationally, the vast majority of top patent earners last year were private organizations. Private spending on research and development by U.S. companies has skyrocketed since the economic downturn of the late 2000s. In 2020, it was estimated to total $531 billion, according to the latest available data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. But nine colleges and universities rose to the top in their respective states for patent filing, as well.

Read on to see who else scooped up the rights to the most cutting-edge tech in Florida last year.

#29. Wellis USA, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#29. Reliaquest Holdings, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#29. HeartWare, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#24. University of Miami (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#24. Sunbeam Products, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#24. Siemens Energy, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#24. Red Pacs, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#24. Jabil, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#22. Mentor Acquisition One, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#22. Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#19. Slice, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#19. Luminar, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#19. KnowBe4, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#17. Suncast Technologies, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#17. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#15. FOREMOSTCO., Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#15. Bolton Medical, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#14. Arthrex, Inc.
- Patents issued: 16

#13. Staton Techiya, LLC
- Patents issued: 19

#12. Masonite Corp.
- Patents issued: 23

#9. University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#9. Shukla Medical (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#9. Mako Surgical Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#8. Eagle Technology, LLC
- Patents issued: 27

#7. Sensormatic Electronics, LLC
- Patents issued: 31

#6. The Florida International University Board of Trustees
- Patents issued: 42

#5. University of South Florida
- Patents issued: 53

#4. University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
- Patents issued: 97

#3. Citrix Systems, Inc.
- Patents issued: 184

#2. Carrier Corp.
- Patents issued: 226

#1. Magic Leap, Inc.
- Patents issued: 275